Second family suicide bombing hits Indonesian city in 24 hours

A second family of suicide bombers has struck the Indonesian city of Surabaya, a day after a couple and their four children attacked three churches, killing 14 people.  

Harrowing footage caught on a CCTV camera shows the moment the bomb was detonated as two scooters carrying a family of five approached a checkpoint at the entrance to the city’s police headquarters at 8.50am on Monday morning, flattening officers, and damaging a car. The police said an eight-year-old girl from the family survived, while her mother, father and two brothers died. Ten others were reportedly injured. 

The blast appeared to be a copycat of a series of devastating bombings at three churches on Sunday morning, in which a mother and father used their young children as cover to murder worshippers. According to the police and eyewitnesses, the mother, Puji Kuswati, 42, tried to force her way into the Indonesia Christian Church with her two daughters, aged 12 and 9, and triggered an explosive when she was stopped by security. The father, Dita Oepriarto, 45, drove a car bomb at another church target, while his two teenage sons, 18 and 16, rode an explosives-laden motorbike into a crowd outside a third place of worship. All six family members died. 

In a separate incident on Sunday evening, in the suburb of Sidoarjo, a man acquainted with Dita detonated an explosive as police closed in on his apartment, killing his wife and one of his children, and injuring another three. 

Hundreds of Indonesians have flocked to Syria and Iraq in recent years to join Islamic State forces, raising fears that they could regroup when they return home. 

The police corrected their initial claims that the family had returned from Isil-controlled Syria but said that the father was a local leader of the extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) which supports the Islamic State terrorist group.