Indonesian police launched raids across the country today in the wake of deadly coordinated attacks on Jakarta, saying they suspected a broader extremist network helped carry out an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The operations came as authorities ramped up security at public places following yesterday's combination of suicide bombings and shootings in the capital that left five attackers and two other people dead.
Confusion has reigned in the wake of the incident, with authorities struggling to provide concrete information on the shock attack that unfurled in broad daylight on a busy street lined with shopping malls, top hotels, and foreign embassies.
National police chief Badrodin Haiti told reporters the attack likely indicates the involvement of a broader support apparatus, and implying that conspirators might still be at large.
"The planners, financiers, and supporters that provide (explosive) materials, assemble the bombs, facilitate accommodations and vehicles etc... Of course this is the work of a team that could be big or small," he said.
"This obviously was not conducted by five men, this takes teamwork."
Police said earlier today that they had identified four of the five dead attackers, and launched raids by heavily armed police in Jakarta and other locations across the far-flung archipelago that resulted in the seizure of an Islamic State flag and other unspecified "books and posters".
"We've sent teams to several cities for operations against targets we identified," he told reporters.
Unconfirmed reports have said the police dragnet resulted in some arrests, but these have not been confirmed by authorities.
Police are yet to release the names of those identified or other details, but said two of the dead militants were fugitive terrorism suspects.
But authorities in the world's most populous Muslim country have already placed blame for the attack on Katibah Nusantara, which police and terrorism analysts say is a faction of the ruthless Islamic State group that has carved out a self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
It would mark the first attack in the region by Katibah Nusantara, which is made up primarily of Malay-speaking Indonesians and Malaysians.
Authorities in Southeast Asia with significant Muslim populations have repeatedly warned of the potential for their citizens to return from IS jihad and carry out violence at home.
