Indonesia's chief security minister Wiranto was rushed by helicopter to Jakarta after a assassination attempt |
Two members of an Islamic State group-linked terror network stabbed Indonesia's chief security minister Wiranto on Thursday, the intelligence head said, sending the powerful politician to emergency surgery for his wounds.
Television
images showed security officers wrestling a man and woman to the ground in
Pandeglang on Java island after the attack on Wiranto, who goes by one name, as
he was exiting a vehicle.
The
suspects were identified as 31-year-old Syahril Alamsyah and Fitri Andriana, 21
-- a married couple, according to local media.
They were
members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an extremist group responsible for
deadly suicide bombings at churches in Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya
last year, State Intelligence Agency chief Budi Gunawan told reporters in
Jakarta.
JAD is
among dozens of radical groups that have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State
(IS) group in Indonesia, which has long struggled with Islamist militancy.
Police said
Indonesia's chief security minister Wiranto was one of several
targets in a
failed assasination plot earlier this year
|
Wiranto, 72
-- who police have said was one of several targets in an earlier failed
assassination plot -- was rushed by helicopter to the capital, where he was
treated for two knife wounds in his stomach.
A
three-hour operation "went well", Indonesian cabinet secretary
Pramono Anung told reporters at Gatot Subroto army hospital.
Anung said
he had just seen Wiranto, whose "operation had finished and he entered the
ICU."
"It is
being handled very well by the hospital," he said in video posted by the
detik.com news website.
President
Joko Widodo earlier said Wiranto was "in surgery and I ask that all
Indonesians pray that he gets well soon."
"And I
ask for everyone's help in fighting radicalism and terrorism because we can
only do it together," he added.
The
assassination attempt comes just over a week before Widodo kicks off a second
term as leader of the Southeast Asian archipelago of some 260 million people,
the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.
Three other
victims -- a local police chief and two aides -- had non-life-threatening
injuries from an attack that wounded Indonesia's chief security minister
Wiranto
|
Three
others -- a local police chief and two aides -- also suffered knife wounds in
Thursday's attack but authorities said they had non-life-threatening injuries.
'Fought
the police'
An
eyewitness told an AFP reporter that the female attacker was dressed in
garments that covered her body and face.
"When
the car stopped, there were people circling around, protecting him," he
said.
"But a
man got into the circle and stabbed Wiranto. The woman also tried to stab him.
He was arrested and the woman fought the police."
Last year,
JAD staged a wave of suicide bombings by families -- including young children
-- at churches in Surabaya, killing a dozen congregants.
Many past attacks by Indonesian militants have been against police and other state symbols.
Authorities
routinely arrest suspected Islamic State group-loyal militants
that they claim
were planning bomb and other attacks
|
Many past attacks by Indonesian militants have been against police and other state symbols.
Authorities
routinely arrest suspected IS-loyal militants that they claim were planning
bomb and other attacks.
"JAD
members are targeting what they call Ansharut Thagut (tyranny) and that
includes senior government officials," said Muhammad Syauqillah, program
director of the University of Indonesia's Terrorism Study Center.
Wiranto,
the retired chief of the armed forces and a failed presidential candidate, was
appointed to his post in 2016 and oversees several departments, including the
foreign affairs and defence ministries.
He has
faced controversy over alleged human rights violations and allegations of
crimes against humanity linked to Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor.
In May,
police said Wiranto and three other top officials were targeted in a failed
assassination plot linked to deadly riots in Jakarta after Widodo's re-election
victory.
A group of
six people -- arrested before they could carry out the killings -- planned to
murder the officials and an election pollster in a bid to plunge the country
into chaos, police said at the time.
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