Indonesia police say militant was making powerful bombs
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian police said a suspected Islamic militant arrested earlier this week was making explosives more powerful than those used in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
National Police spokesman Rikwanto said Saturday that Rio Priatna Wibawa, 23, was linked to Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria who is believed to have inspired attacks at home including a January attack in the capital Jakarta that killed eight people.
Rikwanto, who goes by one name, said bomb-making explosives were recovered from a laboratory in Wibawa’s home in Majalengka town, West Java province. With his ability, Wibawa was making bombs three times as powerful as the Bali bombs, Rikwanto said.
A security crackdown since the 2002 Bali bombings that were carried out by the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah militant group has netted hundreds of radicals and reduced their capacity for large attacks. But a new threat has emerged from the hundreds of Indonesians who have travelled abroad to fight with IS and their supporters in Indonesia.