JAKARTA – Suicide bombings struck churches in a major Indonesian cityduring Sunday services, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens inattacks which police said were carried out by a single family including twoyoung girls.

The bombings at three churches in Surabaya — claimed by the Islamic Stategroup — were the deadliest in years, as the world’s biggestMuslim-majority country grapples with homegrown militancy and risingintolerance towards religious minorities.

The bombers — a mother and father, two daughters aged nine and 12, and twosons aged 16 and 18 — were linked to local extremist network JamaahAnsharut Daulah (JAD) which supports IS, said national police chief TitoKarnavian.

The mother, identified as Puji Kuswati, and her two daughters were wearingniqab face veils and had bombs strapped to their waists as they entered thegrounds of the Kristen Indonesia Diponegoro Church and blew themselves up,he said.

The father, JAD cell leader Dita Priyanto, drove a bomb-laden car into theSurabaya Centre Pentecostal Church while his sons rode motorcyles intoSanta Maria church, where they detonated explosives they were carrying,Karnavian said.

“All were suicide attacks but the types of bombs are different,” he toldreporters.

“This is related to JAD — Jamaah Ansharut Daulah.”

– Coordinated attacks –

The group, led by jailed radical Aman Abdurrahman, has been linked toseveral deadly incidents, including a 2016 gun and suicide attack in thecapital Jakarta that left four attackers and four civilians dead.

That was the first assault claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.

Police on Sunday said four suspected JAD members had been killed in ashootout during raids linked to the deadly prison riot this week.

Five members of Indonesia’s elite anti-terrorism squad and a prisoner werekilled in clashes that saw Islamist inmates take a guard hostage at ahigh-security jail on the outskirts of Jakarta. IS also claimedresponsibility.

East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera confirmed the deaths of 11people with 41 injured in the coordinated attacks at around 7:30 am (0030GMT).

Images showed a vehicle engulfed in flames and plumes of thick black smokeas a body lay outside the gate of Santa Maria Catholic church, withmotorcycles toppled over amid the mangled debris.

In addition to the suicide blast police experts defused two unexplodedbombs at the Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo slammed the attacks, telling reporters:”We must unite against terrorism.”

“The state will not tolerate this act of cowardice.”

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s 260 million people are Muslim, but thereare significant numbers of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

Concerns about sectarian intolerance have been on the rise, with churchestargeted in the past.

Police shot and wounded an IS-inspired radical who attacked a churchcongregation outside Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta with a swordduring a Sunday mass in February. Four people were injured.

In 2000 bombs disguised as Christmas gifts delivered to churches andclergymen killed 19 people on Christmas Eve and injured scores more acrossthe country.

– Coordinated attacks –

The archipelago nation of some 17,000 islands has long struggled withIslamic militancy, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people– mostly foreign tourists — in the country’s worst-ever terror attack.

Sunday’s bombings had the highest death toll since nine people were killedin 2009 attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta.

Security forces have arrested hundreds of militants during a sustainedcrackdown in recent years that smashed some networks, and most recentattacks have been low-level and targeted domestic security forces.

But the coordinated nature of Sunday’s bombings suggested a higher level ofplanning, analysts said.

“Recent (previous) attacks have been far less ‘professional’,” SidneyJones, an expert on Southeast Asian terrorism and director of theJakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, told AFP.

The emergence of IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for radicals,sparking fears that homegrown extremist outfits could get a new lease oflife. – APP/AFP