ISIS strikes Jakarta, sends Southeast Asia chill

Foreigner executed; Starbucks blown up; 7 killed

Islamic State suicide bombers and gunmen struck the capital of Muslim-majority Indonesia Thursday, executing a Westerner and blowing up a Starbucks cafe in an assault that the police said bore the hallmarks of the Paris attacks.

The assault on a district packed with malls, embassies and United Nations offices also left an Indonesian man dead and 20 others injured, in what the country’s President called “acts of terror”. The ISIS group claimed responsibility, saying that the attack was carried out by “soldiers of the caliphate” who targeted a gathering of citizens from the “crusader coalition,” referring to the US-led alliance combating the jihadists.

The Jakarta police said the attack — which also destroyed a police post — was carried out by a network with links to ISIS in Syria and indicated Indonesian extremist Bahrum Naim, thought to have joined the jihadists, may have been involved in plotting it. The ISIS attack will send a chill through Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia with Muslim populations, where there are fears extremists bloodied on Middle Eastern battlefields could have brought their jihad home.

The police said the five-strong cell that struck Thursday, included three suicide bombers who initially targeted a Starbucks cafe near a major shopping mall. After the first explosion, men armed with pistols took two foreigners hostage — an Algerian and a man Ottawa said they had been told by Indonesian authorities was a Canadian.