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JAKARTA, Indonesia (4th update) —Two blasts rocked a bus terminal in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Wednesday and caused casualties, police said.
Deputy National Police Chief Syafruddin told media that one blast occurred in the terminal’s restroom and the other in the terminal’s parking lot. Both explosions happened at around 9:00 PM local time in the Kampung Melayu neighborhood of East Jakarta.
Indonesian National Police spokesperson Setyo Wasisto has confirmed that the explosions were caused by suicide bombers, who both died in the attack. Three police officers were killed in the blasts. A further five police officers and five civilians were wounded.
Wasisto said that the police officers were guarding a community parade when the attack happened. “The parade had not yet passed by when the bombs exploded,” he said.
“As you know, this is a global occurence,” Wasisto said to media gathered near the terminal on Wednesday night. “In Manchester, at the Ariana Grande concert there was a bombing. And in the Philippines, ISIS has attacked the city of Marawi.”
“In my opinion this is a global attack,” Wasisto concluded.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has long struggled with Islamic militancy and hundreds of radicals from the Southeast Asian state have flocked to fight with IS, sparking fears that weakened extremist outfits could get a new lease of life.
A gun and suicide attack in Jakarta left four attackers and four civilians dead in January last year, and was the first assault claimed by the Islamic State group in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia has suffered a series of Islamic militant attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
A sustained crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks but the emergence of IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for radicals.
Bookmark this page for further updates. —with reports from AFP/Rappler.com
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