Indonesian security forces stormed airports, glitzy hotels, passenger ships and the Jakarta Stock Exchange building yesterday in a massive anti-terrorism drill in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
About 7,000 police, soldiers and emergency-response workers were taking part in the exercise held in six major cities, including the capital, Jakarta, and on the popular resort island of Bali.
Indonesia has been hit by a string of deadly suicide bombings targeting Westerners in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US. However, experts say the risk of more large-scale attacks has diminished with the arrest of hundreds of suspects.
PHOTO: AP
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said, however, last month’s militant rampage in the Indian city of Mumbai that left 164 dead highlighted the need to remain alert.
Indonesian television broadcast live footage of black-clad counterterrorism forces dropping by helicopter onto the roof of the five-star Borobudur Hotel before blasting through windows to release screaming hostages, leaving a trail of shattered glass.
In another scenario at a local airport, mock-terrorists seized an airplane carrying the president, killing the pilot and dumping the body onto the tarmac. After a 90-minute standoff, security forces overpowered ransom-demanding militants.
Similar drills will be held on Bali, which has suffered two series of suicide bombings in 2002 and 2005 that killed more than 220 people, many of them foreign tourists.
Security forces also will “storm” a ship in the Strait of Malacca, among the world’s busiest shipping lanes, in a bid to free hundreds of passengers seized in another mock-raid, national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.
Members of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah have been blamed for all of the recent suicide bombings in Indonesia, as well as a number of failed terrorism plots in Southeast Asia.
The last major attack in Indonesia occurred three years ago.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS