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Indonesian police gun down 3 suspected members of Daesh-linked network

Saturday, 14 July 2018 5:43 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 14 July 2018 6:16 PM ]

Indonesian plain-clothes police personnel arrest a suspected terrorist in Yogyakarta city on July 14, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Indonesian anti-terrorism officers have shot dead three suspected Daesh-linked militants during a firefight in the central city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java.

National police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal said in a statement on Saturday that the officers from the elite unit had shot the suspected militants after being attacked with "sharp weapons and a firearm."

He added that the three men were believed to be members of a local Daesh-affiliated network, known as Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which is blacklisted by the US Department of State as a terrorist organization.

Two officers also suffered arm injuries and police seized four machetes and a revolver.

The majority-Muslim Southeast Asian country has been facing mounting violence in recent years.

In May, around 26 people were killed and dozens injured in multiple bombings in the country’s second-largest city, Surabaya, the deadliest attack in over a decade.

Police linked the bombings on churches and outside a police station in Surabaya to JAD.

Back in January 2016, four civilians and four attackers were also killed in a series of explosions and shootings in central Jakarta.

Indonesian prosecutors linked Aman Abdurrahman, a cleric believed to be a main leader of JAD, to the Jakarta attacks and demanded the death penalty for him.