Alwaght- The Indonesian city of Surabaya once again was rocked by terrorist on Monday attacks a day after a wave of deadly blasts in the Asian country's second-largest city.
The latest attack targeted a police station Monday morning, when five suicide bombers on two motorbikes drove into the main gateway of the police station before detonating explosives, police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said.
Frans Barung Mangera, the police spokesman, said that four of the five people on the motorcycles were killed, and that the fifth, an 8-year-old girl, had been taken to the hospital. Four police officers were reported injured.
He identified the killed suspect as Anton Ferdiantono, 46, who police officials later said was a friend of the man behind the church bombings.
The incident comes after a husband and wife used their four children to carry out bomb attacks on three churches on Sunday. Eight people, excluding the bombers, were killed.
Police have said the family were among hundreds of Indonesians who had returned from Syria, where IS has been fighting government forces.
The father has been identified as Dita Oepriarto. Police say he was the head of local branch of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), and Indonesian ISIS-inspired network.
The family of suicide bombers who blew up three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia. Picture: Twitter/James MassolaSource
Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country, has seen a resurgence of militancy in recent months, which has come as ISIS has been squeezed out of its heartland in Syria and Iraq
Authorities on Monday said police, backed by military forces, would increase security across the country.
Sunday's Church Attacks
In the first attack, the sons - aged 16 and 18 - rode motorcycles into Santa Maria Catholic Church at around 07:30 local time (00:30 GMT) and detonated explosives they were carrying.
The father then reportedly dropped off his wife, Puji Kuswati, and their two daughters at Diponegoro Indonesian Christian Church, where they blew themselves up. The girls - aged nine and 12 - had bombs strapped to them, as did their mother.
Oepriarto then drove off, launching his own bomb-laden car into the grounds of Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church, police said.
A government handout image shows a bomb blast at Surabaya Pantekosta (Pentecostal) Center Church on May 13, 2018 in Surabaya, Indonesia.
Thirteen people were killed and more than 40 injured, making it the deadliest attack in Indonesia in more than a decade.
Later on Sunday, a bomb exploded at an apartment complex in Surabaya, killing three people, according to AFP news agency.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack.
The South East Asian country has long struggled with Islamist militancy. Its worst ever terror attack was in Bali in 2002, when 202 people - mostly foreigners - were killed in an attack on a tourist nightlife district.
That attack was carried out by the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant network.
But recent years have seen a number of attacks claimed by ISIS.
Four civilians and four attackers were killed in a series of explosions and shootings in central Jakarta in January 2016; the first attack claimed by the group.
In February this year, a number of people were injured in a sword attack at a church in Sleman, Yogyakarta. Police said that the attacker had previously tried to join IS in Syria.
