Police officers stand guard near the house of an Islamic militant in Sibologa, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, March 13, 2019. The wife and child of an arrested Islamic militant who was plotting attacks in the Indonesian capital have died in an explosion during a siege of their home in North Sumatra, the national police chief said Wednesday.(AP Photo)
Republished March 13, 2019 - 8:32 AM
Original Publication Date March 12, 2019 - 9:06 PM
JAKARTA, Indonesia - The wife of an Islamic militant arrested for plotting attacks in the Indonesian capital detonated a bomb during a siege of their home in North Sumatra, killing herself and her two-year-old child, the national police said Wednesday.
The woman is believed to have blown herself up hours after throwing a homemade bomb that injured an officer as police tried to search the house in Sibologa district on Tuesday, Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Police officers at the location said there were two explosions and smoke at the house about 1:30 a.m., Prasetyo said. The woman had earlier refused calls from her husband, police and local leaders to surrender.
Prasetyo said the woman's husband, known as Husein, was arrested on Tuesday after the interrogation of another suspected militant, Rinto Sugiharto, who was apprehended in Lampung on Saturday, uncovered plans for attacks on police in Jakarta and Lampung.
Both men were members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a militant network affiliated with the Islamic State group, police said.
IS attacks abroad have inspired Indonesian militants despite a sustained crackdown that obliterated an al-Qaida-affiliated network that was responsible for the Bali bombings in 2002 and other attacks.
In May last year, two families carried out suicide bombings at churches in Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, killing a dozen people and two young girls whose parents had involved them in one of the attacks. Police said the father was the head of a local Jemaah Anshorut Daulah cell.
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This version corrects that Prasetyo's title is national police spokesman, not police chief.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019