Eurasia, Videos
by GeoPolitic.org

14 injured after Catholic church in Indonesia hit by suspected suicide bomb attack (VIDEOS)

A bomb went off outside a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar during Sunday service. Police believe it was a suicide attack.

The moment of the blast was caught on a CCTV camera.

A video from the scene shows debris scattered near the gate at the building’s side entrance.

Indonesian media quoted the South Sulawesi Regional Police spokesperson, Kombes E. Zulfan, who described the explosion as a suicide bombing.

National police spokesperson Argo Yuwono later told reporters that two suspected perpetrators were riding a motorbike as they tried to enter the church. He added that a charred vehicle and human remains were found at the scene. Overall, 14 people were hospitalized, according to Yuwono.

Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the church, told a local TV station that a parking attendant was burned when he tried to stop the attack.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged everyone to fight “terrorism and radicalism.” He instructed the police to find out if the perpetrators had ties to terrorist groups, in order to weed them out “to their roots.”

No one has claimed the responsibility for the bombing as of yet.

Several Islamist and separatist groups are active in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country. In 2019, a militant from an Islamic State-inspired group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), attacked a police station in Medan on the country’s western island of Sumatra, injuring six.

In 2018, JAD carried out coordinated suicide bombings in three churches, and another the following day at the police HQ in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, killing 15 people.

Via https://www.rt.com/news/519412-makassar-catholic-church-bombing/