Indonesia: Bombing In A Bus Terminal In Jakarta

An alleged suicide bombing was committed on Wednesday (May 24th) in a bus terminal in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killing at least one policeman. Five policemen were also injured in the busy Kampung Melayu terminal.

The bombs exploded one after the other, ten minutes apart, around 9 pm local time (14 hours UT) in a bus terminal in eastern Jakarta. The author of the attack has not yet been identified. No claim for the moment.

After the Bali attacks, which killed more than 200 people in 2002, the Indonesian authorities launched a major offensive against Islamist networks, particularly Jemaah Islamiyah, allegedly close to al-Qaeda, to which the attacks had been attributed. What experts said weakened these Islamist networks.

But lately, the Islamic state group seems to have remobilized the extremists. By January 2015, four civilians had been killed in an explosive and automatic weapon attack claimed by the IA. And the Indonesian authorities claim to have foiled by 2016 nearly 15 terrorist attacks.

An upsurge in the risk of attacks that occurred in recent months the hardest Islamists has given voice in a country known for its religious tolerance by organizing gigantic demonstrations against the Christian governor of Jakarta, accused of blasphemy. The governor was not re-elected and was sentenced to ten years in prison.