Suicide targeted foreigners to seek revenge

The head of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency, Saud Usman, said the terrorists who launched attacks in Jakarta on Thursday had targeted foreigners with revenge as their motive, Antara News Agency reported.

"They target foreign interests because they are seeking vengeance for the Western treatment of Islam," he said at the office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs here.

Besides foreigners, they also targeted law enforcers, he said, adding that he had informed law enforcement agencies about such an attack much before the actual attack took place.

"We had informed that they would conduct an attack and told the security apparatus in the field to be alert because they were indeed going to be targeted," he said.

Six blasts and then shooting was heard in front of the Starbucks cafe and a police post in the Sarinah department store area on Thamrin Boulevard on Thursday.

Police later said that 24 people had been wounded in the incident while seven others were killed including two civilians and five alleged perpetrators of the blasts and shooting.

Source: MENA