Indonesian suicide bombing at police station kills officers, injures seven

BANDUNG, Indonesia — A man blew himself up at a police station on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Wednesday in what appeared to be the latest in a string of suicide bombings in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Bandung City Police Chief Aswin Sipayung said a man rode a motorcycle into Astana Anyar Police Station and detonated explosives as police were queuing for the morning gathering.

West Java Police spokesman Ibrahim Tompo said the man entered the station when he detonated his explosives, killing himself and an officer instantly. He said six other officers and a civilian were taken to a nearby hospital with injuries.

Police are still investigating the attack in the West Java city of Bandung and whether the man, who has not been identified, had links to radical groups.

A video circulating on social media showed body parts scattered near the damaged police station lobby.

TV reports showed white smoke billowing from the building and people running in panic after a loud bang.

Indonesia has fought militant fighting since bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Attacks on foreigners have largely been replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly attacks targeting the government, police and anti-terrorist forces, and those who view militants as infidels.

ZUMAPRESS.com

REUTERS

In May 2018, two families carried out a series of suicide bombings on churches in the city of Surabaya, killing a dozen people, including two young girls whose parents had implicated them in one of the attacks. Police said the father was the leader of a local affiliate of Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Anshorut Daulah.

Last year, two attackers believed to be members of a militant network that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group blew themselves up outside a packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday service on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi , killing the two attackers and injuring at least 20 people .