Three families were involved in a string of Islamic State-inspired attacks in a period of less than 24 hours Sunday in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, sounding alarms over rising extremism.
A family of six — a husband and wife and their four children — launched three suicide attacks on three separate Christian churches in Surabaya Sunday morning, ending the lives of a dozen people Sunday. The family is believed to have been affiliated with Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, a terrorist organization directly affiliated with and loyal to ISIS.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks on the churches.
PHOTO: the faces of terror. This is the family of suicide bombers who died today, blowing up three churches in Surabaya, #indonesia. Look at those kids. Look at the little girls. 9 & 12 when they died. I have no words. Via @a_mibali #surabaya @smh @theage pic.twitter.com/ubURJycP5p
— James Massola (@jamesmassola) May 13, 2018
A family of five, suspected friends of the first family of attackers, bombed a police station later that same day. Four of the five attackers were killed in the assault, but one, an eight-year-old girl, survived. Ten people, including four police officers, were wounded by the blast.
WATCH:
Indonesia is rocked by its second suicide bombing in 24 hours as police headquarters targeted after 13 were killed in coordinated church attack. pic.twitter.com/r1ZdPQ2RSJ
— Laila Ijeoma (@LailaIjeoma) May 14, 2018
Another explosion occurred Sunday evening as an explosive device exploded prematurely at the home of a bomb maker believed to have connections to the other attackers. The blast instantaneously killed the mother and one daughter, and police shot and killed the father after they found him inside in possession of a detonator. Three other children survived the attack and were taken to the hospital.
The deadly attacks came just before the start of Ramadan.
Sunday’s blasts notably follow a prison riot in Depok, Indonesia last week led by pro-ISIS militants that left five guards and one detainee dead. During the riots, ISIS media outlets ran images of executed hostages and armed prisoners.
The first ISIS attack on Indonesia occurred in January 2016, when armed militants attacked a commercial district in the capital city of Jakarta, killing four and injuring nearly two dozen others. Concerns in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries over rising Islamic extremism has risen in recent months as ISIS loses more and more territory in the Middle East.
While the fall of the caliphate in Iraq and Syria is being celebrated in the West, Southeast Asia is watching anxiously as militants return home, looking to fulfill their mission.
Maute group militants loyal to ISIS, as well as a number of foreign ISIS fighters, launched a brutal assault on Marawi in the Philippines in May 2017, igniting a bloody battle that would last for months. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, and thousands were killed or wounded in a fight that many perceived as an attempt by the Islamic State to secure a foothold in Southeast Asia. (RELATED: Filipino Troops Liberate Town Overrun By ISIS Militants After A Bloody Five-Month Battle)
Many of those same fears linger in Indonesia, where ISIS-inspired radical Islamic terrorism is becoming more frequent.
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