Suicide bombers target church in Indonesia

Two suicide bombers have detonated outside a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar, wounding at least 14 people on the first day of the Easter Holy Week.

The congregation had been inside the church for Sunday service at the time of the explosion, South Sulawesi police spokesman E. Zulpan said. 

"There were two people riding on a motorbike when the explosion happened at the main gate of the church – the perpetrators were trying to enter the church compound," National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said of the explosion in Makassar city.

"The bike was destroyed and there are body parts... We're still collecting parts and trying to identify the sex of the perpetrators."

Earlier, local police had said at least one bomber was involved with at least nine church officials and congregants rushed to hospital with injuries.

"We were finishing the service and people were going home when it happened," the man, identified by his first name Willem, was quoted as saying.

TVONE said the one person killed was the attacker.

Video from the scene showed police had set up a cordon around the church and cars parked nearby were damaged.

Police did not say who might be responsible for the apparent attack and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Past militant attacks

Police blamed the Daesh terror group-inspired Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) group for suicide attacks in 2018 on churches and a police post in the city of Surabaya that killed over 30 people.

Indonesia’s deadliest militant attack took place on the tourist island of Bali in 2002, when bombers killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

In subsequent years, security forces in Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim-majority country, scored some major successes in tackling militancy.

But more recently there has been a resurgence of militant violence and scores of Indonesians have traveled to the Middle East to fight for Daesh terror group.