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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Another Family Behind New Indonesia Suicide Blasts

Indonesian police officers patrol outside a church following a suicide bomb attack in Surabaya on May 13. (AFP/Juni Kriswanto)

A family of five, including a child, carried out a suicide bombing outside a police building in Indonesia's second city Surabaya on Monday, the police chief said, a day after a deadly wave of ISIS-claimed attacks on churches staged by another family.

Security forces have arrested hundreds of militants during a sustained crackdown that smashed some networks, and most recent attacks have been low-level and targeted domestic security force.

But that changed Sunday as a family of six -- including two young girls -- staged suicide bombings of three churches during morning services in Surabaya, killing 14.

On Monday, members of another family blew themselves up at a checkpoint outside the police station in the city, wounding 10.

"There were five people on two motorbikes. One of them was a little kid," national police chief Tito Karnavian said. "This is one family."

An eight-year-old girl from the family survived the attack and was taken to hospital, while her mother, father and two brothers died in the blast, he told a news conference.

On Sunday evening, just hours after the church bombings, a further three people in another family were killed and two wounded when another bomb exploded at an apartment complex about 30 kilometers from Surabaya.

Police said the father in the church bombings -- Dita Oepriyanto -- was a confidante of the man killed in the apartment, who police said had a bomb detonator in his hand when he was shot by authorities.

"The father was Dita's close friend," said Karnavian, the police chief.

"When we searched the flat we found pipe bombs, similar to pipe bombs we found near the churches."

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