Jakarta, April 15: A suspected suicide bomber attacked an Indonesian mosque during Friday prayers, wounding at least 25 people, police and doctors said.
The bomb went off at a mosque inside a police compound in the West Java town of Cirebon, West Java police chief Major General Suparni Parto told.
At least 25 people were rushed to a nearby hospital with injuries, most of them police, said Yeni Rahmawati, a hospital spokeswoman.
Parto said a local police chief was among the victims.
The motive for the attack was not immediately known.
Parto said it was the work of a suicide bomber, whose mangled corpse was found at the scene.
An eyewitness named Anton said the bomber was wearing black clothes and praying.
“He was praying. From the third row, suddenly there was a blast. I was at the last row,” Anton was quoted as saying by Detik news website.
“It seems like a suicide bombing. And the person was killed,” he said.
The Muslim-majority country of 240 million people has been rocked by a series of bombings staged by regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists.
The last significant bombing in Indonesia was carried out by two suicide attackers who killed seven people at two luxurious Jakarta hotels in July 2009.
It was believed to be the work of Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top, who led a JI splinter group. Top was killed in September 2009.
–Agencies