Jakarta, Jan. 6, (dpa/GNA) – Indonesia’s anti-terrorism police shot dead two suspected Islamic militants and arrested 18 others on Wednesday during an operation in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province, police said.
The slain suspects – a man and his 22-year-old son in law – attacked officers who tried to arrest them at their house in the provincial capital Makassar, local police chief Merdisyam said.
The two were believed to be members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a domestic extremist group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, Merdisyam said.
“They and hundreds of others pledged allegiance to the caliphate and ISIS in 2015,” he said, using the former name of Islamic State.
Police said that the two and their relatives tried to travel to Syria to join Islamic State in 2016 but was stopped at the airport in Jakarta.
They were also suspected of sending money to militants who were allegedly involved in suicide bombings at a Roman Catholic cathedral on the southern Philippine island of Jolo in 2019.
The twin bombings killed 20 people and wounded more than 100.
GNA