Indonesian police arrest 12 after Jakarta attack

Indonesian police said Saturday that they have arrested 12 people suspected of links to the Jakarta bombings.

The audacious attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen on Thursday in central Jakarta killed seven people, including two civilians. It was the first major assault by militants in Indonesia since 2009. Police said the attackers were tied to the Islamic State group.

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National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told reporters that arrests were made in west and east Java and in Kalimantan.

Elaborating on an earlier claim that the militants received funding via an Indonesian fighting with Islamic State in Syria, he said police have determined money was transferred to Indonesia via Western Union.

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.

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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 in which 202 people were killed, as well as two hotel bombings in Jakarta in 2009 that killed seven people.

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Terrorism experts say ISIS supporters in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah and other groups but are also trying to recruit new members.

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