JAKARTA • Alleged members of an Islamist militant group shot a police officer dead in eastern Indonesia in the latest assault targeting security officials in the world's most populous Muslim country, police said yesterday.
Five gunmen ambushed and took hostage villagers and police officers who had just returned from Friday prayers at a small mosque near a police post in Central Sulawesi province's Salubanga village, said National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono.
He said the hostages managed to escape when the gunmen, believed to be members of the East Indonesia Mujahideen militant group, sneaked into the mosque's yard and opened fire at the officers and villagers, killing a police officer, and fled to a nearby forested area in Parigi Moutong district.
The attack occurred amid security operations that had intensified in the past months in Poso, a neighbouring mountainous district considered an extremist hotbed, to try to capture the rest of the group's members.
The group still has about nine members after more than 30 were captured or killed in the past year. The group's leader, Abu Wardah Santoso, was killed in a shoot-out with security forces in 2016.
Mr Yuwono said that although the strength of the extremist group was weakened after the death of Santoso, it remains dangerous under its current leader, Ali Kalora.
Indonesia, home to some 230 million Muslims, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamist militants since bombings on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
The Jemaah Islamiyah military network, which was blamed for the Bali attacks, was neutralised following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders. But new threats have emerged in recent times from radicals inspired by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group, who have targeted security forces and local "infidels" instead of Westerners.
Last month, a suicide bomber blew himself up at police headquarters in Medan, wounding at least six people.
That attack came as Indonesia's counter-terrorism force worked to root out suspected militants after an assault by a knife-wielding militant couple who wounded Indonesia's top security minister in October.
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