Islamic State in Southeast Asia: Wave of arrests in Indonesia and Malaysia follows deadly attack in Jakarta

Indonesian police on Saturday named the five men they suspect launched this week’s gun and bomb attack in Jakarta, which was claimed by Islamic State (IS), and said they had arrested 12 people linked to the plot who planned to strike other cities.

As investigators pieced together clues from the radical group’s first attack on Indonesia, neighbouring Malaysia said it had arrested a man in Kuala Lumpur who had confessed to planning a suicide attack in the country.

“We ... have carried out acts of force. We have done searches, we have made arrests and we have obtained evidence connected with the terrorist bombing at Sarinah,” Jakarta police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal told a news conference.

“We will not say how many people or what sort of evidence we have as it will upset out strategy. Be patient, when the case is closed and things are clear we will disclose them.”

Seven people, including the militants, were killed in Thursday’s attack near the Sarinah department store in the Indonesian capital’s commercial district. About 30 people were hurt.

Police held up pictures of the dead and wounded at the news conference, including a man who kicked off the siege by blowing himself up in a Starbucks cafe.

Another attacker, who opened fire with a gun outside the cafe, was named as Afif. A National Counter Terrorism Agency spokesman said Afif had served seven years in prison, where he refused to cooperate with a deradicalisation programme.

The brazenness of the Jakarta assault, which had echoes of marauding gun and bomb attacks such as the Paris siege in November, suggested a new brand of militancy in a country where extremists typically launch low-level strikes on police.