Suicide bomber detonates inside Indonesia mosque

A suicide bomber wounded 28 Indonesians in an attack inside a mosque during Friday prayers. The attack in a mosque is the first of its kind in the Southeast Asian country.

The suicide bomber detonated a waist bag packed with explosives inside the Cirebon police mosque at noontime prayers, a busy period. Eighty percent of the people who attend the mosque are said to be policemen. The Cirebon police chief was among those wounded in the blast.

The bomber wore “a jacket, a hat, and brought a prayer rug” to the service, according to The Jakarta Post. As prayers began, he moved forward and then detonated his vest.

Police have recovered the body of the suicide bomber and hope to be able to identify him. “The corpse was badly injured in the back, but the face was still identifiable,” Indonesia’s national police chief told The Jakarta Post.

Today’s suicide bombing is the first recorded attack inside a mosque in Indonesia. Al Qaeda and allied groups such as the Taliban have carried out numerous attacks inside mosques in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia.

Jemaah Islamiyah, the al Qaeda affiliate in Southeast Asia, has previously targeted locations where foreigners would congregate, such as embassies, hotels, and night clubs.

Al Qaeda in Aceh, a Jemaah Islamiyah subgroup sponsored by Abu Bakar Bashir, JI’s founder and spiritual leader, has also plotted and carried out attacks against Indonesian police and counterterrorism forces. Bashir is currently on trial for supporting Al Qaeda in Aceh and can receive the death penalty if convicted.

Today’s attack takes place two weeks after Pakistani officials captured Umar Patek, a top Jemaah Islamiyah operative and one of the most wanted members of the group. Patek is believed to have traveled to Pakistan to meet with high-level al Qaeda commanders.

Sources:

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

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3 Comments

  • Mr T says:

    And yet the Islamic world erupts in flames, anger, and murder when Americans even enter a mosque or draw a cartoon.
    These guys target mosques and kill Muslims. Where is the religious outrage? Why are there not riots in the streets of Gaza and Cairo and Islamabad?

  • Infidel4LIFE says:

    God forbid we fire a missle and frags hit a mosque. This here, this is pure evil. In a house of worship. I believe more moslems were killed by their own kind than by US miltary actions. This kind of attack really drives home the point the jihadists will stop at nothing. Wat are we headed for? Nukes in P-stan. Iran working on theirs. Can it be avoided?

  • Soccer says:

    I’m sure Bill could actually come up with numerical statistics showing that more Muslims are killed in mosques than anything the U.S. military has ever done… they claim that we target them in their mosques, but ACTUALLY, these “holy mujahideen” are the ones who target them the most in their mosques!!!
    I wish Muslims would wake up, but that will never happen. No point in wasting energy waiting for something that will never happen.

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