Attackers set off explosions at a Starbucks cafe in a bustling shopping area of downtown Jakarta and waged gun-battles with police, leaving bodies in the streets as office workers watched in terror from high-rise windows.
This is the "terrorist toolkit" carried by the Isis death squad who launched a series of suicide bomb and gun attacks that left seven dead in Jakarta.
Police found the arsenal of bombs, guns, ammunition and knives in a jihadist's rucksack after a three-hour gunbattle in the Indonesian capital.
Oneof the fanatics had earlier been seen training his handgun on potential victims while stalking the streets as terrified onlookers ran for their lives.
Police found this arsenal in a rucksack carried by one of the attackers. Photo / AFP
The last stand played out near a Starbucks in a bustling shopping area after the team of seven militants traded fire with police and blew themselves up.
Another bomber exploded inside the cafe, wounding several inside. As people poured out, waiting gunmen opened fire on them, killing a Canadian man.
At the same time, two militants attacked a police traffic post nearby, using what witnesses described as homemade hand grenades, killing themselves and an Indonesian man.
The scene had echoes of the Paris attacks: A bustling shopping area shaken by the blasts of suicide bombers and gunfire as onlookers fled in terror.
When the assault in central Jakarta was over, the death toll was far lower. Of the seven killed, five were the attackers themselves and only two were civilians - a Canadian and an Indonesian. Another 20 people were wounded.
Authorities and analysts believe the violence that left the city of 10 million on edge for hours was a loud announcement of the Islamic State group's presence in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.
Supporters of the Islamic State group circulated a claim of responsibility on social media resembling the militants' previous messages.
Jakarta police chief Major General Tito Karnavian said the attackers had links with IS and were part of a group led by Bahrum Naim, an Indonesian militant who is now in Syria.
"We have identified all attackers," Charliyan said: "We can say that the attackers were affiliated with the Isis group."
A police officer gives a hand signal to a squad mate as they search a building near the site of an explosion. Photo / AP
Jakarta is no stranger to terrorism, with the 2009 bombings of two hotels that killed seven people and injured more than 50. The bloodiest attack by Islamic extremists in Indonesia - and in all of Asia - was in 2002, when a nightclub bombing on the resort island of Bali killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
Those and others were blamed on the al-Qaida-inspired Jemaah Islamiyah. Following a crackdown by security forces, militant strikes in recent years have been smaller and less deadly, and have targeted government authorities, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces. Terrorism experts say Isis supporters in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah.
Charliyan said police had received information in late November about a warning from the Islamic State group that "there will be a concert" in Indonesia, meaning an attack. Last month, anti-terror police arrested nine suspected militants and said they had planned attacks "to attract international news coverage of their existence here."
People carry an injured police officer near the site where an explosion went off at a police post. Photo / AP
Indonesian authorities deployed 150,000 security personnel, made arrests and said they foiled a plot to kill government officials, law enforcement officers and others. The heightened security ended Jan. 6.
Southeast Asian terrorism expert Sidney Jones wrote in November that Bahrum Naim has been urging his Indonesian audience to study the Paris attacks.
"While the police and army have been focused on going after Indonesia's most wanted terrorist, Santoso, in the hills of Central Sulawesi, ISIS has succeeded in building a network of supporters in the suburbs of Jakarta," Jones wrote.
Taufik Andri, a terrorist analyst, said although the attack ended swiftly and badly for the attackers, their aim was to show their presence and ability.
"Their main aim was just to give impression that ISIS' supporters here are able to do what was done in Paris. It was just a Paris-inspired attack without being well prepared," he told The Associated Press. Those attacks in November killed 130 people.
