Alwaght- Indonesian Police has killed an armed man who has set off an improvised explosive device (IED) in the courtyard of a government building in Bandung city of but has been killed in a shootout with police afterwards.
The pressure cooker bomb went off on Monday at around 0200 GMT in the West Java city. No one was injured or killed in the blast.
According to the Indonesian Police, the assailant arrived at the government building on a motorbike and placed the homemade bomb on a table in a corner of the courtyard. After the explosion, he ran into the government office and the gunfight started. The attacker was later shot and killed by police.
Police said a second attacker was at large. It was not clear how the second suspect was connected to the attack.
“We have secured the firearm, the bomb squad has also secured a backpack. The bomb squad is combing the area to see if there are more homemade bombs,” Anton Charliyan, the West Java police chief, told local media.
“Situation is safe for now, but we must remain on alert and not underestimate things,” he added.
Police said the motive behind the abortive operation was to take hostages and force the release of prisoners held by the police anti-terror unit.
“The motive is to free suspects that are in Densus (Indonesia’s anti-terrorism unit) custody. We think the attacker is from an old network, but we are still identifying who he is,” Charliyan told reporters.
Indonesia has launched a crackdown on terrorists since bombings on the tourist island of Bali killed more than 200 people in October 2002. It has been facing a renewed threat over the past years from ISIS-linked militants.
