Indonesian police guard is seen near the scene of a shooting in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia July 14, 2018 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/ Hendra Nurdiyansyah/ via REUTERS
July 15, 2018
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian anti-terrorism officers shot dead three suspected Islamic militants on Saturday in the central Java city of Yogyakarta, police said.
National police spokesman Mohammad Iqbal said the officers from the elite unit had shot the suspects after being attacked with “sharp weapons and a firearm”.
Two officers suffered arm wounds and police seized four machetes and a revolver.
Iqbal’s statement said the men were believed to be members of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a loose grouping of hundreds of Islamic State sympathizers that is on a U.S. State Department terrorist list.
The majority-Muslim Southeast Asian nation has faced a surge in homegrown Islamist militancy in recent years. In May, around 30 people were killed in suicide bombings in Surabaya, the deadliest attack in over a decade.
(Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
