Surabaya, Indonesia (AP) -- The police headquarters in Indonesia's second largest city was attacked Monday by suspected militants who detonated explosives from a motorcycle, a day after suicide bombings at three churches in the city by members of one family killed at least eight people.

CCTV footage shows a car and two motorcycles approaching a security checkpoint at the police complex followed by an explosion from one of the motorbikes with at least two people aboard it.

Surabaya police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said civilians and police were victims of the attack but didn't immediately announce a death or injury toll.

Police say the family that carried out Sunday's suicide bombings had returned to Indonesia from Syria and included girls aged 9 and 12. All six members of the family died.

Separately on Sunday, three members of another family were killed when homemade bombs exploded at an apartment in Sidoarjo, a town bordering Surabaya, police say.

IS claimed responsibility for the church attacks in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency. It didn't mention anything about families or children taking part and said there were only three attackers.

Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack occurred in 2002, when bombs exploded on the tourist island of Bali, killing 202 people in one night, mostly foreigners. But the fact that children were involved in Sunday's attacks in Surabaya shocked and angered the country.

Jemaah Islamiyah, the network responsible for the Bali attacks, was obliterated by a sustained crackdown on militants by Indonesia's counterterrorism police with U.S. and Australian support. A new threat has emerged in recent years, inspired by IS attacks abroad.

Experts on militant networks have warned for several years that the estimated 1,100 Indonesians who traveled to Syria to join IS posed a threat if they returned home.</s>SURABAYA >> Coordinated suicide bombings carried out by members of the same family struck three churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city Sunday, police said, as the world’s most populous Muslim nation recoiled in horror at one of its worst attacks since the 2002 Bali bombings.

At least seven people died at the churches in Surabaya along with the six family members, the youngest of whom were girls aged 9 and 12, according to police. Another 41 people were injured.

National police chief Tito Karnavian said that the father detonated a car bomb, two sons aged 18 and 16 used a motorcycle for their attack, and the mother and her two daughters wore explosives.

Karnavian said the family had returned to Indonesia from Syria, where until recently the Islamic State group controlled significant territory.

IS claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency. It didn’t mention anything about families or children taking part and said there were only three attackers.

Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack occurred in 2002, when bombs exploded on the tourist island of Bali, killing 202 people in one night, mostly foreigners. But the fact that children were involved in Sunday’s attacks in Surabaya shocked and angered the country.

Jemaah Islamiyah, the network responsible for the Bali attacks, was obliterated by a sustained crackdown on militants by Indonesia’s counterterrorism police with U.S. and Australian support. A new threat has emerged in recent years, inspired by IS attacks abroad.

Experts on militant networks have warned for several years that the estimated 1,100 Indonesians who traveled to Syria to join IS posed a threat if they returned home.

Karnavian identified the father as Dita Futrianto and said he was head of the Surabaya cell of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, an Indonesian militant network affiliated with IS that has been implicated in attacks in Indonesia in the past year. He identified the mother as Puji Kuswati.

The attacks occurred within minutes of each other, according to Surabaya police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera.

Karnavian said Futrianto drove a bomb-laden car into the city’s Pentecostal church.

Kuswati, with her two daughters, attacked the Christian Church of Diponegoro, he said. Based on their remains, Karnavian said the mother and daughters were all wearing explosives around their waists.

The sons rode a motorcycle onto the grounds of the Santa Maria Church and detonated their explosives there.

A witness said the woman arrived at the Diponegoro church carrying two bags.

“At first officers blocked them in front of the churchyard, but the woman ignored them and forced her way inside. Suddenly, she hugged a civilian, then (the bomb) exploded,” said the witness, a security guard who identified himself as Antonius.

At Santa Maria, a Catholic church, shattered glass and chunks of concrete littered the entrance, which was sealed off by armed police. Rescuers treated victims in a nearby field while officers inspected wrecked and burned motorcycles in the parking lot.

A street merchant outside the church said she was thrown several meters (yards) by the blast.

“I saw two men riding a motorbike force their way into the churchyard. One was wearing black pants and one with a backpack,” said the merchant, Samsia, who uses a single name. “Soon after that, the explosion happened.”

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited the sites and described the attacks as “cowardly actions” that were “very barbaric and beyond the limit of humanity.”

In Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, the Indonesian Church Association added its condemnation.

“We are angry,” said Gormar Gultom, an official with the association, but he urged people to let the police investigation take its course.

Indonesia’s two largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, also condemned the attacks.

Mangera, the Surabaya police spokesman, said police responded about 9 p.m. to an explosion in a residential building in Sidoarjo, a district bordering Surabaya.

He confirmed TV reports that three people, including a child, were inside the fifth-floor flat at the time of the blast. A bomb squad was checking the building, he said, and hundreds of people were evacuated from the neighborhood.

Separately, national police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said police fatally shot four suspected militants and arrested two others early Sunday in West Java towns. It wasn’t clear whether the shootings were connected to the church attacks.

“They have trained in order to attack police,” Wasisto said, identifying the militants as members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah.

Jakarta police placed the capital and surrounding areas on high alert, while the transportation ministry warned airports to be on guard.

The church attacks came days after police ended a hostage-taking by imprisoned Islamic militants at a detention center near Jakarta in which six officers and three inmates died. IS claimed responsibility.

Despite Indonesia’s crackdown on militants since the Bali bombings, the country has faced a new threat in recent years as the rise of IS in the Middle East invigorated local networks.

Christians, many of whom are from the ethnic Chinese minority, make up about 9 percent of Indonesia’s 260 million people.

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia and Stephen Wright in Bangkok contributed.</s>SURABAYA, Indonesia, May 14 (Reuters) - Indonesia's police chief said a suicide attack outside a police building in Surabaya on Monday, which wounded officers and civilians, was carried out by a family of five that included an eight-year-old child.

The family, riding on two motorbikes, blew themselves up at a checkpoint outside the police station, Police Chief Tito Karnavian told a news conference. The young child survived and is now recovering, he said.

On Sunday, a family of Islamist militants killed 13 people in suicide attacks on three churches in Surabaya. (Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor and Jakarta bureau Writing by Ed Davies Editing by Paul Tait)</s>BEIRUT: The Islamic State group was responsible for suicide attacks against three churches in Indonesia that killed at least 11 people on Sunday, it said via its propaganda agency Amaq.

"Three martyrdom attacks killed 11 and wounded at least 41 among church guards and Christians," it said via the Telegram messaging app.

The jihadist group's toll tallied with that of police following the seemingly coordinated attacks against three churches in the city of Surabaya at around 7.30am local time (00.30GMT).

IS has claimed responsibility for several recent attacks in Indonesia, most of them carried out by its affiliate Jamaah Ansharut Daulah.

In January 2016, IS claimed a gun and suicide attack in the capital Jakarta that left four attackers and four civilians dead.

In May last year, suicide attacks which killed three policemen and wounded a dozen more at a busy Jakarta bus station were also claimed by IS.

Days ago, a prisoner and five police officers were killed in clashes at a high-security jail during which Islamist inmates took an officer hostage.

IS said it was behind the riot, a claim authorities rejected.</s>SURABAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a motorbike wounded several Indonesian police outside a police building in Surabaya on Monday, a day after Islamist militants launched suicide attacks on churches in the country’s second largest city, police said.

“We can’t be open up all details yet because we are still identifying victims at the scene and the crime scene is being handled,” he told a briefing.

The blast occurred at 8.50 a.m. (0150 GMT) at checkpoint outside the building, he said. The full extent of casualties was unclear, he said.

CCTV footage shown on Indonesian television showed a motorbike arriving at a checkpoint next to a car and exploding as officers approached it.

On Sunday, Islamist militants killed at least 13 people in suicide attacks on three churches in Surabaya.</s>SURABAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - A family of six launched suicide attacks on Christians attending Sunday services at three churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, officials said.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has seen a recent resurgence in homegrown militancy and police said the family who carried out Sunday’s attacks were among 500 Islamic sympathizers who had returned from Syria.

“The husband drove the car, an Avanza, that contained explosives and rammed it into the gate in front of that church,” East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera told reporters at the regional police headquarters in Surabaya.

The wife and two daughters were involved in an attack on a second church and at the third church “two other children rode the motorbike and had the bomb across their laps”, Mangera said.

The two daughters were aged 12 and 9 while the other two, thought to be the man’s sons, were 18 and 16, police said.

They blamed the bombings on the Islamic State-inspired group Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).

JAD is an umbrella organization on a U.S. State Department “terrorist” list that is estimated to have drawn hundreds of Islamic State sympathizers in Indonesia.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, in a message carried on its Amaq news agency.

“This act is barbaric and beyond the limits of humanity, causing victims among members of society, the police and even innocent children,” President Joko Widodo said during a visit to the scene of the attacks.

East Java police spokesman Mangera said the attacks had killed at least 13 people and 40 had been taken to hospital, including two police officers. He called on people to remain calm.

Streets around the bombed churches were blocked by checkpoints and heavily armed police stood guard as forensic and bomb squad officers combined the area for clues.

Television footage showed one church where the yard in front appeared engulfed in fire, with thick, black smoke billowing up. A large blast was heard hours after the attacks, which Mangera said was a bomb disposal squad dealing with a device.

The attacks come days after militant Islamist prisoners killed five members of an elite counter-terrorism force during a 36-hour standoff at a high security jail on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.

The church attacks were likely linked to the prison hostage standoff, said Wawan Purwanto, communication director at Indonesia’s intelligence agency.

“The main target is still security authorities, but we can say that there are alternative (targets) if the main targets are blocked,” he said.

At St Mary’s catholic church, the first place of worship to be attacked, the bombing happened after an earlier mass was over and when the church was getting ready to hold another service.

A witness interviewed by CNN Indonesia said shortly before the explosion he saw a person on a motorbike drive in carrying a cardboard box.

Separately, an internal police report reviewed by Reuters said a suspected bomb exploded in a car in the parking lot of a Pentacostal church, setting alight dozens of motorbikes.

In the third location, the Indonesian Christian Church, veiled women entered the church’s yard where they were stopped by a security guard before an explosion occurred at the same spot, according to the police report.

Television images showed toppled and burnt motorcycles and debris scattered around the entrance of one church and police cordoning off areas as crowds gathered.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s church association (PGI) called on the government for more help on security at churches.

“PGI is concerned because this had happened many times and often taken place around the time of Sunday services,” said Jeirry Sumampow, a spokesman for the Indonesia’s Communion of Churches.

Pope Francis offered his prayer to the victims during his Sunday prayer in Rome.

“I am particularly close to the dear people of Indonesia, especially to the communities of Christians of the city of Surabaya, which were hit hard by the serious attack on places of worship,” he said.

“Together we invoke the God of peace (asking him) to cease these violent actions and (to make sure) that in the heart of all there could be a space not feelings of hatred and violence, but of reconciliation and fraternity.”

Nearly 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslim, but the country is also home to sizeable communities of Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and people who adhere to traditional beliefs.

Indonesia has had some major successes tackling militancy inspired by al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States in 2001. But there has been a resurgence of Islamist activity in recent years, some of it linked to the rise of Islamic State.

The most serious incident was in January 2016 when four suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a shopping area in central Jakarta.

Churches have also been targeted previously, including near-simultaneous attacks on churches there at Christmas in 2000 that killed about 20 people.</s>SURABAYA: Indonesia's police chief said a suicide attack outside a police building in Surabaya on Monday (May 14), which wounded officers and civilians, was carried out by a family of five that included an eight-year-old child.

The family, riding on two motorbikes, blew themselves up at a checkpoint outside the police station, Police Chief Tito Karnavian told a news conference. The young child survived and is now recovering, he said.

On Sunday, a family of militants killed at least 13 people in suicide attacks on three churches in Surabaya.</s>SURABAYA, Indonesia - An Indonesian family detonated explosives outside police headquarters in the country’s second-largest city on Monday, a day after members of another family launched coordinated suicide bombings on three city churches that killed at least eight people.

National police chief Tito Karnavian said a girl aged about eight who was with two of the attackers on a motorcycle survived being thrown by the blast at Surabaya’s police headquarters. The attack killed the four perpetrators. Six civilians and four officers were wounded.

The attack came just hours after police said the family that carried out the church bombings included girls aged nine and 12.

The flurry of attacks have raised concerns that previously beaten down militant networks in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation have been reinvigorated by the return of some of the estimated 1,100 Indonesians who went to fight with the Islamic State group in Syria. Experts have warned for several years that when those fighter return, they could pose a significant threat.

IS claimed responsibility for the church bombings in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency. Karnavian, however, said earlier police comments that the family had spent time in Syria were incorrect.

He said the church bombers and the police headquarters attackers were friends, as were another family whose homemade bombs exploded in their apartment Sunday night.

The use of children in the attacks has been particularly horrifying to people. Indonesia’s president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo condemned them as “barbaric” and vowed that authorities would root out and “destroy” Islamic militant networks.

Security camera footage of the attack on Surabaya’s police headquarters showed at least one explosion after the four attackers rode two motorcycles up to a security checkpoint. The motorcycles, which moved closely together, pulled up alongside a car and four officers manning opposite sides of the checkpoint.

Two men, apparently civilians, were walking into the area just meters from the motorcycles at the moment of the explosion, which a split second later was followed by a second possible blast.

Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack occurred in 2002, when bombs exploded on the tourist island of Bali, killing 202 people in one night, mostly foreigners. Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda affiliated network responsible for the Bali attacks, was obliterated by a sustained crackdown on militants by Indonesia’s counterterrorism police with U.S. and Australian support.

Karnavian has said the father of the family that carried out the church bombings was head of the Surabaya cell of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, an Indonesian militant network affiliated with IS that has been implicated in attacks in Indonesia in the past year. All six members of the family were killed.

The IS statement claiming the attacks didn’t mention anything about families or children taking part and said there were only three attackers. The group also claimed responsibility for a hostage-taking ordeal last week by imprisoned Islamic militants at a detention center near Jakarta in which six officers were killed.

Separately on Sunday, three members of another family were killed when homemade bombs exploded at an apartment in Sidoarjo, a town bordering Surabaya, police said.

The church attacks occurred within minutes of each other, according to Surabaya police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera.

Karnavian said the father drove a bomb-laden car into the city’s Pentecostal church. The mother, with her two daughters, attacked the Christian Church of Diponegoro, he said. Based on their remains, Karnavian said the mother and daughters were all wearing explosives around their waists.

The sons aged 16 and 18 rode a motorcycle onto the grounds of the Santa Maria Church and detonated their explosives there.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>SURABAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - A vehicle exploded injuring several Indonesian police in Surabaya on Monday, a day after Islamist militants killed at least 13 people in suicide attacks on churches in the country’s second largest city, police said.

The blast had occurred at 8.50 a.m. (0150 GMT) at their police office, East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera told a briefing. The full extent of casualties was unclear, he said.

“There has been an explosion, we don’t know exactly what happened,” he said. On Sunday, Islamist suicide bombers attacked three churches, killing at least 13 people and wounding about 40.</s>Indonesian police say Surabaya suicide bombers all members of 1 family, including teens, children

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police say Surabaya suicide bombers all members of 1 family, including teens, children .
At least 13 people are killed and more than 40 others wounded after a series of suicide bombings at three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia.