Raid in Makassar in South Sulawesi by the Densus 88 unit led to a deadly shoot-out with two suspected fighters who resisted arrest.
A counterterrorism unit raiding a hideout of armed fighters in central Indonesia on Wednesday shot lifeless two males suspected of involvement in twin bombings at a Philippine church in 2019 that killed greater than 20 individuals.
Police stated in an announcement the raid in Makassar in South Sulawesi by the Densus 88 unit led to a deadly shoot-out with two suspected fighters who resisted arrest.
Makassar police chief Witnu Urip Laksana instructed Reuters information company the suspects have been concerned within the bombings of a church on southern Jolo Island in a restive, predominantly Muslim area of the Catholic-majority Philippines.
Police carried out “agency and calculated” motion towards the 2 suspects, Witnu stated, including an investigation was persevering with.
Police suspect the boys have been members of the ISIL-inspired Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has carried out a sequence of assaults in Indonesia.
Philippine authorities have concluded the January 2019 church assault was a suicide bombing by an Indonesian couple, with the assistance of a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has pledged allegiance to ISIL (ISIS).
Abu Sayyaf fighters additionally skilled with the Southeast Asian armed group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was based by an Indonesian preacher, and each teams had been beforehand linked to al-Qaeda.
Deadliest Philippine suicide bombing
Greater than 100 individuals have been wounded within the Jolo church bombing, which was among the many first and to this point deadliest suicide bombings within the Philippines, the place such assaults have been nearly exceptional till 2018.
Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Wednesday.
The area of Mindanao within the southern Philippines has for many years been beset by Muslim separatists. With its porous borders and shut proximity to Indonesia and Malaysia, the Filipino fighters have been in a position to set up shut hyperlinks with regional allies.
Authorities are involved about armed teams taking maintain in impoverished, primarily Muslim areas, the place operatives from close by international locations and past have linked up with native teams to plan assaults and recruit and prepare fighters.
In October 2020, Philippine authorities additionally arrested an Indonesian lady who was believed to be linked to a separate suicide assault on a army convoy in Jolo that killed 15 individuals and wounded dozens of others.
The Indonesian lady was the widow of one other Indonesian who was killed by Filipino troopers in Sulu in August 2020.
She can also be believed to be the daughter of two suicide bombers concerned within the church bombing.