[AnNahar] Indonesian police said Thursday they had uncovered a huge stash of explosives linked to a terror suspect whose wife blew up herself and a child following a dramatic standoff at their home.
The discovery of some 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of assembled explosives and bomb-making materials raised fears that a major attack was being planned, a month before national elections and less than a year after Indonesia was rocked by a wave of deadly suicide kabooms.
The suicide kaboom early Wednesday morning came after police had jugged
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the husband, Abu Hamzah, who was identified as a member of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).
The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-linked jihadist network has been blamed for attacks last May in Indonesia's second-biggest city, Surabaya, the deadliest in years to rock the world's biggest Moslem majority nation.
Officers surrounded the arrested krazed killer's home in Sibolga on Sumatra island when the confrontation began.
During a nearly 12-hour standoff, the wife lobbed an bomb at security personnel, wounding a police officer, authorities said.
They later found parts of a woman's corpse and that of at least one child. Police initially said they thought two of the couple's children might have been killed.
"We're still trying to formally identify his wife because the body isn't one piece," said national police front man Dedi Prasetyo.
| “Hey, Sarge — I found a nose and a left ear, but they look like two different sizes. Ya got another envelope for the remains?” |
Police said they uncovered a large cache of bombs and kabooms in the couple's home and another in the same city.
"A total of 300 kilogrammes of bombs and bomb-making materials were discovered," Prasetyo said.
On Thursday, police destroyed materials in a controlled kaboom in a field.
University of Indonesia terrorism expert Stanislaus Riyanta said the large stash hinted that a serious attack was being planned.
"This is frightening," he told AFP.
"The impact of bombs depends on the materials used. But this amount -- 300 kilogrammes -- if used all at one time, could certainly be very destructive and deadly, especially in a densely populated area."
The arrest of Hamzah, who police said was a skilled bomb maker, comes days after authorities arrested two other terror suspects in other parts of the country. Police said all three were connected.
Last year, two families carried out attacks at churches in Surabaya, killing a dozen people and children of the attackers, including two maiden of tender yearss.
On Thursday, a Jakarta court sentenced several bully boyz linked to the Surabaya bombings with prison sentences ranging from about three to 10 years.
Since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed over 200 people including scores of tourists, Indonesia has seen a string of deadly attacks that have tested its long-held reputation for religious tolerance. 
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