Indonesia, September 22: More than a dozen gunmen on motorcyles attacked a police station in western Indonesia on Wednesday, killing three officers, in an apparent revenge attack after police raided a nearby Islamic militant group.
The gunmen were believed to have links to a militant group that ran a training camp in Aceh, in northern Sumatra island, and that had planned to stage a coup against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a police spokesman said.
The police station was 2 km (one mile) from where police at the weekend captured and killed several members of the group, which was also linked to armed bank robberies in the region that were aimed at raising funds for attacks.
“I think they are from the same group that robbed the CIMB bank, which is linked with the group that had trained in Aceh,” police spokesman Iskandar Hasan said, adding that the attackers shot the officers in charge and left one alive.
“They wanted to convey a message about their existence,” he said.
The al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah and its offshoots have pulled off several bomb attacks in Indonesia over nearly a decade.
Several leaders and main bomb-makers have been killed or imprisoned, while Indonesia’s anti-terror unit has captured hundreds of militants, reducing their effectiveness.
But security officials suspect various groups are forging closer links and adopting new strategies.
Police have said militants may be switching tactics from bombing Westerners — such as in nightclubs in Bali in 2002 and hotels in Jakarta last year — to attacks on state targets and institutions such as the president and the police.
Indonesia’s poor gun control and corruption are allowing jihadist networks access to arms that may be used in attacks or bank robberies to help fund militancy, an international think-tank said this month.]
—Agencies