A treacherous attack … the full details of the bombing of a cathedral in Indonesia during a Palm Sunday

The Indonesian police said today, Sunday, that the suicide bombers – a man and a woman – who attacked a cathedral on a palm tree, belong to an extremist group loyal to “ISIS” that is blamed for other bombings in churches in Indonesia and the Philippines.

“He is part of JAD,” National Police Chief Listio Seagate Prabowo told reporters, referring to the “Ansharut Dole” extremist group accused of the deadly bombing of a church in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia in 2018, according to Agence France-Presse.

Seagate Prabowo added:

This group is also part of or associated with the group that carried out the operation in Jolo, the Philippines, referring to an attack in 2019.

About 20 worshipers were injured in a powerful explosion outside the church in Makassar, Sulawesi, as they celebrated the start of Holy Week. It has not yet been determined whether there are any deaths.

The two suspects were killed in the attack when they rode a motorbike into the church compound, triggering the detonation of what authorities said was an improvised explosive device known as a pressure cooker bomb. A church security guard tried to prevent the perpetrators from entering when the explosion occurred.

Prabowo did not name or say how they were identified, but forensic examiners were conducting DNA tests on the body parts scattered in the horrific scene. “Two of the perpetrators were killed, one a man and the other a woman,” Prabowo said.

An Indonesian militant and his wife – members of GAD – have been blamed for carrying out two explosions that rocked a Catholic church on the predominantly Muslim Philippine island of Jolo in 2019, killing Sunday mass worshipers and security forces.Two other militants linked to the attack were shot dead by Indonesian security forces earlier this year.

One witness described the Sunday bombing, hearing two “extremely powerful” explosions and then seeing plumes of smoke. She told Agence France-Presse: “There were several wounded in the street. I helped a woman who was wounded and stained with blood. Her grandson was also wounded, and there were body parts everywhere.”

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that he “strongly condemns this terrorist act,” adding that “terrorism is a crime against humanity,” calling on everyone to fight terrorism and extremism that conflicts with religious values. Meanwhile, Amnesty International said that the attack showed a “complete disregard” for human rights.

The explosion at the main Catholic cathedral in Macassar – a port city of about 1.5 million people – occurred right after the worshipers finished celebrating Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, which commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It comes a week before Easter.

For his part, Pope Francis, in his Palm Sunday Mass, said that he prayed for all victims of violence, “especially the victims of the morning attack in Indonesia in front of the Macassar Cathedral.”

Sunday’s attack comes on the heels of the arrest of dozens of militants suspected of planning terrorist attacks in recent months.

Indonesia has witnessed a series of attacks by Islamic extremists over the past two decades, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, most of them foreign tourists. These bombings were the deadliest terrorist attacks in Indonesia.

In 2018, 12 people were killed when suicide bombers riding motorcycles blew themselves up in churches during Sunday mass in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city.The “Ancharot Dole” group gained notoriety for the first time in 2016 after its rifle attack and a suicide bombing in the capital, Jakarta, killed four civilians and four attackers, including a person who blew himself up in a Starbucks outlet. This was the first attack claimed by the Islamic State in Southeast Asia.