JAKARTA: An Indonesian cathedral was rocked by a suspected suicide bombing on Sunday with body parts littering the chaotic scene as Christians inside celebrated the start of Holy Week, police said.
The powerful blast at the church in Makassar city on Sulawesi island happened around 10:30 am local time (0330 GMT) and left at least one person dead and nine church officials and congregants injured, according to authorities.
It was not immediately clear if any of the injuries were life-threatening.
“We suspect it was a suicide bombing,” South Sulawesi police chief Merdisyam, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told reporters.
“We’re now trying to confirm his identity,” he added, referring to the suspected attacker.
A church security guard tried to prevent a man on a motorbike from entering the compound when the blast occurred, with images from the scene showing what appeared to be a body lying inside the parking lot.
Churches have been targeted in the past by extremists in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.
In 2018, a dozen people were killed when a family of suicide bombers blew themselves up at churches during Sunday services in Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya.
The family — including two daughters, aged nine and 12 — and another family of five, which carried out the suicide bombing of a police headquarters, all belonged to the same Qur'an study group and were linked to local extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Earlier Sunday, Makassar Mayor Mohammad Ramdhan said: “There are many body parts here at the church compound as well as in the street.”
News footage showed cars near the building were damaged as police cordoned off the area following the explosion.
The explosion at the city’s main Catholic cathedral happened just after congregants finished celebrating Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, which commemorates Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem.
It comes a week before Easter.
“We were finishing the service and people were going home when it happened,” a man identified as the church’s pastor told local media.
An eyewitness at the scene described the explosion as “very strong.”
Indonesia cathedral rocked by Palm Sunday suicide bombing
https://arab.news/ywcy8
Indonesia cathedral rocked by Palm Sunday suicide bombing
- Cathedral was rocked by a suspected suicide bombing on Sunday with body parts littering the chaotic scene
Britain, Japan agree to deepen defense and security cooperation
- “We set out a clear priority to build an even deeper partnership in the years to come,” Starmer said
- Takaichi said they agreed to hold a meeting of British and Japanese foreign and defense ministers this year
TOKYO: Britain and Japan agreed to strengthen defense and economic ties, visiting Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday, after his bid to forge closer links with China drew warnings from US President Donald Trump.
Starmer noted that Japan and Britain were the leading economies in a trans-Pacific that includes fellow G7 member Canada, as well as other international trade and defense pacts.
“We set out a clear priority to build an even deeper partnership in the years to come,” Starmer said as he stood beside Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after a bilateral meeting in Tokyo.
“That includes working together to strengthen our collective security, across the Euro-Atlantic and in the Indo-Pacific.”
Takaichi said they agreed to hold a meeting of British and Japanese foreign and defense ministers this year.
She said she also wanted to discuss “cooperation toward realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific, the Middle East situation and Ukraine situation” at a dinner with Starmer later on Saturday.
Starmer arrived on a one-day Tokyo stop after a four-day visit in China, where he followed in the footsteps of other Western leaders looking to counter an increasingly volatile United States.
Leaders from France, Canada and Finland have all traveled to Beijing in recent weeks, recoiling from Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and tariff threats against NATO allies.
Trump warned on Thursday it was “very dangerous” for its close ally Britain to be dealing with China, although Starmer brushed off those comments.
Tokyo’s ties with Beijing have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily during a potential attack on Taiwan.
China regards the self-ruled democratic island as its territory.
Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang on Thursday, with both sides highlighting the need for closer ties.
He also signed a series of agreements there, with Downing Street announcing Beijing had agreed to visa-free travel for British citizens visiting China for under 30 days.
No start date for that arrangement has been given yet.
Takaich said the two leaders agreed during discussions on economic security that a strengthening of supply chains “including important minerals is urgently needed.”
There is concern that Beijing could choke off exports of the rare earths crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
China, the world’s leading producer of such minerals, announced new export controls in October on rare earths and associated technologies.
They have also been a major sticking point in trade negotiations between China and the United States.
Britain, Japan and Italy are also developing a new fighter jet after Tokyo relied for decades on the United States for military hardware.
