Indonesian police kill man wielding machetes, IS symbol

Jakarta / AFP
Indonesian police shot dead a man carrying knives and suspected pipe bombs after he launched a daylight assault on officers near Jakarta on Thursday, an official said, in an attack later claimed by the IS group.
The man was shot three times as he stabbed wildly at officers on a busy intersection in Tangerang, a satellite city outside the capital, Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono said.
Setiyono said the perpetrator threw two suspected pipe bombs at the officers, but neither detonated, and displayed an IS symbol on a nearby traffic pole during the frenzied attack. “A man suddenly stuck an IS logo sticker on a traffic police post, took a machete from his bag and blindly attacked our personnel,” he said.
The attacker was also carrying a turban, along with knives and the suspected bombs, Setiyono added. The 21-year-old attacker later died of his wounds, the spokesman said, adding that the attacker had two brothers who were police officers in Tangerang.
Three officers were injured and taken to hospital. The IS-linked Amaq news agency claimed credit for the incident, saying the policemen were wounded by “fighters from the IS”, according to the SITE monitoring group. Police have often been the target of attacks by extremists in Indonesia.
In January, police officers were targeted by gunmen and suicide bombers at a traffic post in central Jakarta. The IS-claimed attack left four civilians and four militants dead, and injured several police officers. Police and military personnel have also been killed in clashes with extremists in a remote part of Sulawesi, where for years a ragtag militant group has been waging a conflict against security forces from their jungle hideout.