MAKASSAR, Indonesia – Two assailants suspected of being members of a network of militants who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organization flew outdoors in a Roman Catholic cathedral crowded at a Palm Sunday Mass on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, injuring at least 20 people. said the police.
The Reverend Wilhelmus Tulak, priest of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Makassar, said that he had just finished the birthday party of Palm Sunday Mass when a strong roar surprised his congregation. He said the explosion around 10:30 a. m. local time as a first organization of worshippers left the church and some other organization came in.
He said church security guards suspected two men on motorcycles looking to enter construction and when they went to face them, one of the men detonated their explosives.
Police later said that the two attackers died immediately and that evidence accumulated at the site indicated that one of them was a woman, among the wounded four guards and several faithful, the police said.
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The head of the national police, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, told reporters on his scale at the crime scene Sunday night that the two attackers are believed to be members of the militant organization Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organization. and was guilty of a fatal suicide. Bombing of Indonesian churches in 2018.
He said one of the attackers related to a bomb attack on a church in the Philippines.
At the end of the Palm Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, which opened the Easter ceremonies at the Vatican, Pope Francis invited us to pray for the victims of violence. In particular, he cited “those of the attack that took place this morning in Indonesia, in front of Makassar Cathedral. “
The attack a week before Easter on the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world came amid the country’s alert after the arrest in December of the head of the Southeast Asian militant organization, Jemaah Islamiyah, who has been designated as an organization. terrorist in many countries.
Indonesia has been fighting militants since bombings on the coastal island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists. Attacks on foreigners have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller and less deadly measures against the government, police and police. terrorist forces and those to whom unfaithful activists.
Police only met one of Sunday’s attackers through his initial, L, which they said was linked to a suicide bombing in 2019 that killed 23 other people at Notre Dame Cathedral on Mount Carmel in the Philippine province of Sulu, Prabowo said.
He said the two attackers were related to an organization of suspected militants arrested in Makassar on January 6 when a squad of counter-terrorism police shot and killed two suspected militants and arrested 19 others. his alleged role in the suicide bombing in the Philippines.
He said Sunday that police had arrested four militants believed to have links to the attackers in a raid on Bima, a town on Sumbawa Island in eastern Nusa Tenggara province.
“We are still in favor of other members of the organization and have ordered Densus 88 to continue its movement,” Prabowo said, referring to Indonesia’s anti-terrorist police elite.
Indonesia’s last primary attack in May 2018, when two families carried out a series of suicide bombings in churches in surabaya city, killing a dozen people, adding two young women whose parents were concerned about one of the attacks. head of a local branch of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah.
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President Joko Widodo condemned Sunday’s attack and said it had to do with any religion because all religions would tolerate any kind of terrorism.
“I ask others to stay calm while worshipping because the state promises they can worship without fear,” Widodo said in a televised speech.
He presented his prayers to the wounded and said the government will cover all the costs of medical remedies. He said he had ordered the national police leader to take strong action against any network of militants that might be involved.
A video of the scene of the attack received through The Associated Press showed portions of frames strewn near a burning motorcycle at church gates.
At least 20 other people were injured in the attack and admitted to hospitals for treatment, said Mohammad Mahfud, the minister coordinating political, legal and security affairs.
Indonesia has been on high alert since police arrested Jemaah Islamiyah leader Aris Sumarsono, also known as Zulkarnaen, in December. Over the next month, the country’s counter-terrorism team arrested some 64 suspects, 19 of them in Makassar, after imaginable reports. attacks on police officers and places of worship.
Jemaah Islamiyah was once regarded as the pre-eminent terrorist network in Southeast Asia, but has weakened over the past decade through sustained repression. In recent years, however, a new risk has emerged among militants who have fought with the Islamic State organization in Iraq and Syria and returned to Indonesia or encouraged by the organization’s attacks abroad.
Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.
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