Daesh in Indonesia
This item appears on page 15 of the March 2016 issue.
In Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, two people were killed and more than 20 were injured in an attack by Daesh-allied terrorists on Jan. 14. The attack began when two suicide bombers struck a Starbucks and a police post, then gunmen took hostages in a theater. Police raided the theater and killed the gunmen. The police chief described the attack as an attempt to mimic the Nov. 13 Paris attacks.
Indonesia has the world’s largest population of Muslims but has remained relatively free of terrorist acts. This was the first attack in Indonesia by Daesh, and it was the first terrorist attack in Indonesia since July 2009, when seven people were killed in suicide bombing attacks at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.