(Vatican Radio) The Islamic State group has said its supporters carried out a gun and grenade attack in Jakarta that left at least seven people dead, including four attackers. The incident on Thursday is the latest indication that the group is growing in strength in Southeast Asia.
Listen to Alastair Wanklyn's report
There were explosions and then a gun battle broke out in a shopping district in
Jakarta that is popular with United Nations staff and other foreign workers.
A police spokesman said the gunmen tried to imitate the recent attacks in Paris. Indonesian
President Joko Widodo urged people...not to be afraid.
Indonesia was on edge over Christmas and New Year's, when security forces braced for
an attack, although none took place.
Hundreds of Indonesians and Malaysians are thought to have joined the Islamic State
in Syria, where the group says it has set up a special unit for them.
Meanwhile, in the southern Philippines, too, there are signs of growing allegiance
to the Islamic State.
Fr. Sebastiano D'Ambra, an Italian missionary who runs an interfaith dialogue in the
city of Zamboanga, said the local peace process is faltering, and that is causing
some separatists to buy into Islamic State ideology.
"We are in a growing of this situation, and God knows what will happen next."
Fr. D'Ambra, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, says a prominent
Muslim cleric in the southern Philippines has urged local leaders to crack down on
extremism, but he says even they may now be unable to control it.
"There is no courage, because they are afraid."
Some analysts say as long as the Islamic State group controls territory in the Middle
East it will continue to have appeal in impoverished parts of Southeast Asia.
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