US Embassy in Indonesia target of planned terror attack, police say

Anti-terrorism police in Indonesia arrested 11 people this weekend suspected of planning terrorist attacks against US and Australian targets, finding explosives material and completed bombs.

Police believe all are members of a new, local terrorist organization called Harakah Sunni for Indonesian Community (HASMI), The Jakarta Post reported.

Indonesia’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit carried out the raids in four provinces on Friday and Saturday morning, police representative Insp. Gen. Suhardi Alius said at a press conference today.

“The targets of the group were allegedly American embassy offices in Surabaya and Jakarta; Plaza 89, in front of Australian embassy and [US mining giant] Freeport headquarters in Jakarta, and the Srondol Mobile Brigade headquarters in Semarang,” he said, according to The Post.

Police found completed bombs, bomb parts, explosives and manuals, the state media agency Antara said.

Arrests came in East, Central and West Java, Palmerah and Jakarta, Antara said.

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Police didn’t reveal details about the stage of the attacks or if the group had connections to outside terror networks, The Associated Press said.

More Muslims live in Indonesia – an estimated 212 million – than any other nation in the world.

The Indonesian resort island of Bali was the site of a 2002 terrorist attack that killed 202 people, many of whom were tourists.

Since then, Indonesia has attempted to root out terrorists and has arrested 700 suspects, the AP said.

“From evidence found at the scene, we believe that this group was well prepared for serious terror attacks,” Aliyus told the AP.

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