ISIS magazine publishes excerpt on Jakarta attack

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) published an excerpt about the Jakarta attacks on their propaganda magazine Dabiq on Wednesday, January 20, almost a week after the attacks.

On page 19 of the radicalist magazine, under the section, “A selection of military operations conducted by the Islamic State,” an article on the attacks on downtown Indonesia on January 14 – which was earlier claimed by the group – was described as having “targeted a group of disbelievers.” (READ: Jakarta and ISIS: What we need to know)

The excerpt reads:

“On the 3rd of Rabī’ al-Ākhir, an Islamic State security unit in Indonesia targeted a group of disbelievers – in the city of Jakarta – who are citizens of nations taking part in the crusader coalition waging war against the Islamic State. They targeted them by planting a number of timed explosive devices, whose explosion coincided with an attack by four soldiers of the Khilāfah (may Allah accept them) armed with light weapons and explosive belts. The operation led to the killing of nearly 15 from among the crusaders and the murtaddīn tasked with guarding them, in addition to the wounding of a number of others.”

Dabiq magazine pages 14-19

The excerpt also included a photo that captured the chaos, and included a body that was covered with an orange tarp. The photo was captioned, “The aftermath of the operation in the city of Jakarta.”

The 4 terrorists identified by the police who carried out the attacks were Muhammad Ali, Afif alias Sunakin, Dian Juni Kurniadi, and Ahmad Muhazan.

While the magazine says 15 civilians died however, the number is greatly exaggerated with the police’s final death count of civilians only at 4. The number of injured is at 26. (READ: Jakarta attacks: Did some terrorists escape?)

The excerpt also said its targets were disbelievers. The attacks took place at an embassy district – one shooting and bombing attack at a Starbucks cafe where many expats work and meet, and another at a police post less than 100 meters away where suicide bombers blew themselves up.

Of the 4 civilians, one was a Canadian while the other 3 were Indonesians.

Compiled attacks

The piece appeared in a section that compiled various attacks carried out by ISIS in other countries, including Baghdad, Tunisia and Egypt.

The introduction of the section reads:

“As the soldiers of the Khilafah continue waging war on the forces of kufr (non Muslim), we take a glimpse at a number of recent operations conducted by the mujahidin (jihadists) of the Islamic State that have succeeded in expanding the territory of the Khilāfah, or terrorising, massacring, and humiliating the enemies of Allah. These operations are merely a selection of numerous operations that the Islamic State has conducted on various fronts across many regions over the course of the last two months.”

In an interview with Rappler, ex-jihadist Ayub Abdurrahman said Indonesia was the “great hope” of terrorists because it is the nation with the largest Muslim population in the world. He also said extremists do not like Indonesia because despite its large Muslim population, they are mostly moderate.

ISIS has expressed interest in building awilayat(province) in Indonesia. – Rappler.com