Family, With Children in Tow, Carry Out Suicide Bombings at 3 Churches in Indonesia

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Surabaya Center Pentecostal Church, in East Java, Indonesia, was one of three churches targeted by suicide bombers on Sunday.CreditAntara Foto, via Reuters

By Muktita Suhartono and Rukmini Callimachi

May 13, 2018

BANDUNG, Indonesia — One suicide bomber appeared to have been disguised as a churchgoer. Another drove a Toyota minivan to one attack site. Still another was seen in footage speeding on a scooter before exploding.

When the smoke cleared from the back-to-back bombings, which targeted three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, as worshipers gathered between services on Sunday morning, the police said it had been the work of one family: a couple who had led their four children in a rampage that took their own lives and killed at least seven other people.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to the group’s news agency Amaq. In an initial bulletin, the group described each of the bombings as a “martyrdom” operation. In a subsequent, longer media release, the group identified three modes of attack: a car bomb, a suicide vest and a motorcycle-borne bomb.

The bombings occurred one day after a man in Paris who shouted, “God is great” in Arabic killed one person with a knife and wounded four others. Hours later, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. A day later, Amaq released a cellphone video of the attacker pledging allegiance to the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and calling on fellow Islamic State supporters in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere to carry out attacks.

More than 41 other people were wounded in the suicide bombings in Indonesia, said Frans Barung Mangera, a police spokesman. Mr. Mangera said at least one of the bombers had been disguised as a worshiper and the bombs had been detonated in different parts of the city within minutes of one another.

He said the victims included worshipers who were entering and leaving the churches between services. Two police officers were also among the victims, he said.

At a news conference later on Sunday, Indonesia’s police chief, Tito Karnavian, identified the attackers as Dita Oepriarto and his wife, Puji Kuswati. The police chief said that two of their sons, ages 18 and 16, had also been involved. Two younger children were also seen in the company of the woman at one bombing site, the police said.

Footage posted on YouTube shows what appears to be one of the attackers on a scooter suddenly turning off a street and speeding toward a church before exploding.

The police said the father, driving a Toyota minivan, had dropped off the mother and the two younger children, ages 12 and 9, at the Indonesia Christian Church. There, according to Kumparan News, an online news site, quoting the deputy police chief of Surabaya, the woman tried to force her way into the church after being stopped by a security guard.

She then detonated the bomb in the yard outside the entrance, killing herself and the two children, the deputy police chief said.

At another target, Santa Maria Church, the sons detonated the explosives, the police chief said. Photographs from the site showed several people lying on the ground outside the church gate. Other images showed scattered debris and the police cordoning off the site.

The father was behind the wheel of the vehicle that crashed into Surabaya Center Pentecostal Church, detonating explosives believed to have been in the vehicle, the police said. The couple, along with all four children, died in the explosions, the police said.

Officials in Surabaya said the police had later disabled three bombs at the home of the suspects.

Surabaya, located on the eastern side of the island of Java, has a significant Christian minority that is about 11 percent of the city’s population of almost three million. The bombings came as professed followers of the Islamic State have begun to make their presence felt in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation that is proud of its diversity and tolerance.

A police spokesman said the victims included worshipers who were entering and leaving the churches between services. Two police officers were also among the dead, he said.CreditEPA, via Shutterstock

In 2016, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, claimed its first attack in Southeast Asia, when militants attacked a police post and shopping center in central Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, with homemade guns and bombs.

This month, inmates who said they were followers of the Islamic State rioted in a high-security detention center outside of Jakarta. Five guards were killed before counterterrorism officers stormed the compound.

Churches have also been targeted by other extremists. On Christmas Eve in 2000, nearly simultaneous attacks on churches in Jakarta and several other cities killed about 20 people. A local group with links to Al Qaeda later claimed credit.

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A man injured in a church explosion in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, on Sunday. The victims included many worshipers who were entering and leaving the churches between services.CreditTrisnadi/Associated Press

The suicide bombings here and the knife attack in France came days before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, a time of prayer for the majority of the world’s Muslims and a period when groups like ISIS typically intensify and multiply attacks.

Analysts have been waiting for the start of Ramadan, which begins on Tuesday, to assess the Islamic State’s capabilities. They argue that if the group is able to carry out significant attacks, as it did during Ramadan over the previous three years, it would indicate that the group remained a potent threat, despite its territorial losses.

On Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered at the Heroes Monument in Surabaya to mourn after the bombings. And officials announced that public schools in the city would be closed on Monday.

Muktita Suhartono reported from Bandung, Indonesia, and Rukmini Callimachi from New York. Amir Tejo contributed reporting from Surabaya, Indonesia.