Indonesian police headquarters attacked day after church bombings
A police spokesman in Indonesia said Monday that there has been an explosion at the police headquarters in the Indonesian city of Surabaya after an apparent vehicle attack.
Frans Barung Mangera, the spokesman, said officers had been injured in the Monday morning attack. He said the vehicle used was a motorcycle.
The attack follows suicide bombings at three churches in the city on Sunday that killed at least eight members of the public as well as six people from one family who carried out the bombings.
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All three attacks targeting Sunday Mass congregations occurred in Surabaya, a city of around 2.8 million people in a country that holds the world’s largest Muslim majority, Reuters reported.
At least 13 people, including the family members, were killed and more than 40 people were injured in the blasts.
The first attack that killed four people, including one or more bombers, occurred at the Santa Maria Roman Catholic Church, police told reporters at the scene. Two police officers were among more than 40 wounded, they said. The father of the family accused of carrying out the suicide bombing had detonated a car bomb during his attack.
Police aim their weapons at a man who was being searched by other police officers following an explosion at nearby police headquarters in Surabaya.
(Reuters)
The incident was followed by a second explosion at the Christian Church of Diponegoro that killed two people. In a third attack, at Pantekosta Church, two more died, police said.
A witness described the woman with two children, saying she was carrying two bags at the Diponegoro church.
"At first officers blocked them in front of the churchyard, but the woman ignored them and forced her way inside. Suddenly (the bomb) exploded," said a civilian guard named Antonius.
Indonesia has carried out a sustained crackdown on militants since bombings by Al Qaeda-affiliated radicals in Bali in 2002 killed 202 people.
Churches have been previously targeted in central Jakarta at Christmas in 2000 that killed about 20 people, Reuters reported.
Indonesia has seen a “recent resurgence in homegrown militancy,” the wire service reported.
Fox News' Amy Lieu, Katherine Lam and The Associated Press contributed to this report