3rd civilian dies of wounds in Jakarta bombings

Jakarta, Jan 17: Indonesian police said they have arrested 12 people suspected of links to the Jakarta bombings, as the death toll in the brazen attacks by Muslim militants rose to eight after a third civilian succumbed to wounds.

An Indonesian man who was shot in the head when two attackers fired into the crowd died at a hospital late yesterday, Jakarta police spokesman Col. Muhammad Iqbal said today.

The audacious assaults by suicide bombers and gunmen on Thursday targeted a Starbucks and traffic police post in bustling central Jakarta, leaving eight dead, including three civilians, and more than 20 wounded. It was the first major assault by militants in Indonesia since 2009.

Police said the attackers were tied to the Islamic State group through Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with IS in Syria. National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told reporters the 12 arrests were made in west and east Java and in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island.

Elaborating on an earlier claim that the militants received funding from Bahrun, he said police have determined money was transferred to Indonesia via Western Union. He said that one of those arrested had received money transferred from IS.

Separately, authorities say they have blocked more than a dozen websites expressing support for Thursday's attack as they try to counter radical Islamic ideology online.

Communications Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu urged Indonesians to report militant websites and social media accounts.

In recent years, Indonesian counterterrorism forces successfully stamped out the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah that was responsible for several attacks, including the 2002 bombings of bars in Bali that killed 202 people, as well as two hotel bombings in Jakarta in 2009 that killed seven people.

IANS