30 May, 2017
A similar type of bomb was used in Bandung in February by a lone attacker, killed by police, who was suspected of links to a radical network sympathetic to Islamic State.
The pressure cooker explosions on Wednesday also injured 10 others, including civilians and five policemen, Xinhua news agency quoted police spokesman Awi Setiyono as saying.
Indonesia has long struggled with extremist militancy and has suffered a series of attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings by an Al Qaeda-linked group in which 202 people were killed, including 88 Australians.
"The police are the ones who arrest mujahideen (one who engages in jihad) and sometimes kill them in operations.", she said yesterday. Police said an anti-terror squad immediately raided two houses believed to be owned by the perpetrators in neighboring provinces of Banten and West Java.
News outlet Detik.com reported the police had confiscated bayonets, military equipment, official documents including passports and a marriage license and books on religion during the raid.
Police believe they were specifically targeted in the bombing.
"There's a link, but we're still studying whether it's an global network", said National Police spokesman Awi Setyono, who told reporters earlier that police are investigating whether the attackers had direct orders from Syria or elsewhere.
Indonesian police said the weapons appeared to be pressure-cooker bombs carried in backpacks. "Police have taken their relatives for questioning and DNA tests", Makhfudiharto told The Associated Press.
Salam's wife reportedly told investigators that the bombs were assembled by another militant known as "Agus", who is now sought by police and considered "at large and risky".
Indonesian lawmakers should expedite the passage of revised anti-terrorism laws that give police more power, President Joko Widodo said after twin suicide attacks in the capital this week killed three policemen.
"We are now looking for Agus who is still at large", Mr Yunus said. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told his Parliament on Thursday that he had phoned Jokowi to "offer our condolences and our resolute support to Indonesia as we condemn the murderous terrorist attack on civilians and police in Jakarta last night".
"The Islamic State remains the main driver of attacks in Indonesia, and the threat posed by militants linked to the group is likely to escalate in the country", Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center analyst Otso Iho told CNN. At least six other militants were arrested, including some accused of trying to establish a militant training camp in eastern Indonesia and suspected of having links with Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines.
She said the goal of the attack was also to show their presence following numerous police actions in past years that had weakened terrorist groups in the country.