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Deadly Jail Riot Near Indonesian Capital Is Claimed by ISIS ISIS-Linked Indonesian Jail Riot Ends as Police Raid Cellblock
(3 months later)
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A deadly riot involving terrorism suspects inside a high-security detention center outside Indonesia’s capital stretched into Wednesday evening, officials said, and the media arm of the Islamic State claimed its loyalists were holding hostages there. JAKARTA, Indonesia — A riot and deadly two-day standoff by terrorism detainees in a police detention center near the Indonesian capital ended early Thursday after a police assault on the cellblock led to a mass surrender by those holed up inside, officials said.
The police said that five guards and one detainee had been killed in the riot. Explosions could be heard from the compound as a police counterterrorism unit known as Detachment 88 fired tear gas and blew out walls in search of bombs made by a group of 156 terrorism suspects and convicted militants. Officials said that five guards and one detainee had been killed in the standoff at the detention center, in Depok, West Java Province.
Gen. Mohammad Iqbal, a National Police spokesman, told reporters that the riot erupted late Tuesday at the detention center, which is inside the local headquarters of the National Police Mobile Brigade, a paramilitary police unit, in Depok, West Java Province. He said at least six detainees were still holed up within the compound. Most of the inmates in the section have been linked to the Islamic State, and the terrorist group’s media arm claimed responsibility for the uprising, posting images it said showed guards that the detainees had taken hostage and then killed.
“We’re still negotiating with them, we’re still talking to them,” he said. Indonesia’s influential security minister, Wiranto, said that 145 of the detainees came out and surrendered, leaving 10 holed up inside. He said officers recovered 30 weapons that the detainees had taken from guards within the compound.
General Iqbal said that the riot had started in the section of the detention center reserved for terrorist suspects and convicted terrorists. . Then officers stormed the cellblock, Mr. Wiranto said, using explosives, grenades and tear gas, and the remaining 10 detainees then surrendered, he said.
“We have isolated them into one block, so the situation is under control,” General Iqbal said. He added that they were working to negotiate the release of one police officer being held hostage. Commissioner General Syafrudin, deputy chief of the Indonesian National Police, told reporters that some of the blasts heard from compound were from bombs that had been made by the detainees.
Even as the riot was unfolding, the Islamic State’s propaganda arm uploaded videos and photos that they claimed were from inside the detention center, showing executed hostages and detainees brandishing weapons, raising the black flag of the Islamic State and pledging allegiance to the group’s leader. “The blast sounds were part of our efforts to destroy any bombs inside, because they had made bombs,” General Syafrudin said. “For the next six hours, we will continue sterilization, and afterward, you journalists can go inside and look around.”
General Iqbal denied the Islamic State was behind the riot. “The trigger is trivial: complaints about food,” he said. He said the 155 detainees under scrutiny would all be transferred to the maximum-security prison island of Nusakambangan, off the south coast of Java Island, where the convicts considered to be the most dangerous are all sent.
There was a riot at the same police detention center in November 2017, when terrorist detainees fought with guards during a search for contraband, including cellphones. They took photos and video of themselves brandishing Islamic State flags. Gen. Mohammad Iqbal, a National Police spokesman, told reporters that the riot erupted late Tuesday at the detention center.
On Wednesday evening, police officers wearing flak jackets and helmets and carrying assault rifles were still surrounding the compound, which lies about 15 miles south of Jakarta, the capital. Even as the riot was unfolding, the Islamic State’s propaganda arm uploaded videos and photos that it claimed were from inside the detention center, showing executed hostages and detainees brandishing weapons, raising the black flag of the Islamic State and pledging allegiance to the group’s leader.
Nearly 150 detainees awaiting trial on terrorism charges, as well as convicts awaiting transfer to prison — most of whom are linked to the Islamic State — are among those held in the detention center, according to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, a Jakarta-based research organization. But initially, Indonesian officials denied that Islamic State loyalists had been behind the uprising. “The trigger is trivial: complaints about food,” General Iqbal said in the early hours of the standoff on Wednesday.
In a report released in February, the institute called the concentration of so many Islamic State supporters at the detention center “a disaster waiting to happen.” There was a riot at the same police detention center last November, when terrorist detainees fought with guards during a search for contraband, including cellphones. They took photos and video of themselves brandishing Islamic State flags.
“We said it was A: overcrowded, and B: there was no effort at all to counsel the newly arrived detainees, and they were almost all pro-ISIS,” said Sidney Jones, the institute’s director. According to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, a Jakarta-based research organization, the large population of terrorism suspects and convicts in the detention center has long been “a disaster waiting to happen.”
Ms. Jones, a prominent terrorism analyst, said the November 2017 riot was a warning to the authorities, who then began moving the most violent or radicalized convicts on terrorism charges to the maximum security prison island of Nusakambangan, off the south coast of Java Island. In a report the institute released in February, “we said it was A: overcrowded, and B: there was no effort at all to counsel the newly arrived detainees, and they were almost all pro-ISIS,” Sidney Jones, the institute’s director, said in an interview on Wednesday.
The biggest attack by pro-ISIS Indonesian militants here came in January 2016, when a group of four men attacked a police post and shopping center in downtown Jakarta with homemade guns, bombs and suicide vests. The four attackers were killed along with four civilians, and 23 people were injured. Ms. Jones, a prominent terrorism analyst, said the November 2017 riot was a warning to the authorities, who then began moving the most violent or radicalized convicts on terrorism charges to Nusakambangan.
Last week, the police in West Java arrested three men who were accused of planning a suicide bomb attack on the Police Headquarters where the detention center is. The biggest attack by pro-ISIS Indonesian militants here came in January 2016, when a four men attacked a police post and shopping center in downtown Jakarta with homemade guns, bombs and suicide vests. The four attackers were killed along with four civilians, and 23 people were injured.
Last week, the police in West Java arrested three men who were accused of planning a suicide bombing on the Police Headquarters where the detention center is.
Indonesia has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in recent years, including bombings on Bali in 2002 and 2005, and international hotels in Jakarta in 2003 and 2009.