| JAKARTA: As the faithful gathered for Christmas prayers Friday, Indonesia braced for possible terrorist attacks with tight security at churches, hotels and other potential targets to safeguard seasonal festivities. More than 180,000 police officers were being mobilised after alerts by foreign governments of an imminent attack by Islamic extremists in the world's largest Muslim-populated nation. Indonesia has been hit by a wave of deadly bombings in the past few years, including a string of church explosions on Christmas Eve four years ago that killed 19 people, and the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 died. "The deployment of two-thirds of the police force across the country for the Christmas and New Year season is now complete," national police deputy spokesman Sunarko Danu Ardanto told AFP. In Jakarta 28,000 police and military were dispatched to guard the city's 467 churches and 67 other places of worship while shopping centres and other locations such as hotels would receive extra guards. |