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Suspected suicide bombing at Indonesian church wounds 14 people

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Reuters
(Last Updated On: March 28, 2021)

Two suspected suicide bombers attacked a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday, wounding fourteen people on the first day of the Easter Holy Week, officials said.

The congregation was concluding their mass inside the church on the island of Sulawesi when the attackers detonated at least one device outside, police said. The two suspects were the only fatalities.

“I strongly condemn this act of terrorism and I have ordered the police chief to thoroughly investigate the perpetrators’ networks and tear down the networks to their roots,” President Joko Widodo said in an online broadcast following the attack.

Authorities were looking into which radical networks the bombers came from and whether the attack was linked to recent arrests of suspected militants, national police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.

In January, a counter-terrorism unit raided a militant hideout in Makassar and killed two men suspected by police of involvement in twin bombings at a Philippine church in 2019 that killed more than 20 people.

Jokowi, as the president is widely known, urged people to remain calm and said everybody could worship “without fear”.

Father Wilhemus Tulak, a priest at the church, told Indonesian media that a suspected bomber tried to enter the church grounds on a motorbike, but had been stopped by a security guard.

Security camera footage showed a blast that blew flame, smoke and debris into the middle of the road.

Ansyaad Mbai, former chief of the National Counterterrorism Agency, said the perpetrators were likely part of the same group responsible for a bombing in Jolo, the Philippines, in 2020.

“They want to show that they still exist and use this to propagate their group and recruit new members,” he said.

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

Makassar, Sulawesi’s biggest city, reflects the religious makeup of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with a substantial Christian minority and followers of other religions.

“Whatever the motive is, this act isn’t justified by any religion because it harms not just one person but others, too,” Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Indonesia’s religious affairs minister, said in a statement.

Gomar Gultom, head of the Indonesian Council of Churches, described the attack as a “cruel incident” as Christians were celebrating Palm Sunday, and urged people to remain calm and trust the authorities.

Indonesia’s deadliest Islamist 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 scored some major successes in tackling militancy, but more recently there has been a resurgence of militant violence.

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Malaysian navy helicopters collide in mid-air, 10 killed

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(Last Updated On: April 23, 2024)

Two Malaysian navy helicopters collided in mid-air during a rehearsal for a naval parade on Tuesday, killing all 10 crew members aboard, the navy said in a statement.

The incident occurred at the Lumut naval base in the western state of Perak at 9.32 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the navy said.

“All victims were confirmed dead at the scene and sent to the Lumut naval base military hospital for identification,” Reuters reported the navy as saying.

A video circulating on local media showed several helicopters flying in formation, when one of the choppers’ rotor clipped another before both aircraft crashed into the ground.

Local police confirmed the footage was genuine.

The navy said it would carry out an investigation into the cause of the accident, Reuters reported.

Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the aircraft – a maritime operations helicopter and a Fennec military chopper – were rehearsing for a parade celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Royal Malaysian Navy, due to be held on Saturday.

Efforts were underway to verify the identities of the crew members killed, all of whom were below the age of 40, Mohamed Khaled told reporters.

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Russia says West is teetering on brink of conflict between nuclear powers

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(Last Updated On: April 22, 2024)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the support of the United States, Britain and France for Ukraine was stoking serious strategic risks that had raised the risk of a direct confrontation between the world’s biggest nuclear powers.

Lavrov said the United States and NATO were obsessed with the idea of inflicting “strategic defeat” on Russia and there were risks in such confrontation that could lead to an increased level of nuclear danger, Reuters reported.

“The Westerners are teetering dangerously on the brink of a direct military clash between nuclear powers, which is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” Lavrov said.

The United States and its allies say they are helping Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression and that it is Russia that is aggravating East-West tensions, including by issuing repeated warnings about the danger of a nuclear conflict.

Lavrov said: “Of particular concern is the fact that it is the ‘troika’ of Western nuclear states that are among the key sponsors of the criminal Kyiv regime, the main initiators of various provocative steps. We see serious strategic risks in this, leading to an increase in the level of nuclear danger.”

The three Western countries with nuclear weapons are the United States, Britain and France.

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Two Japan navy helicopters crash, one body found, 7 missing

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(Last Updated On: April 21, 2024)

Two Japanese navy helicopters crashed into the sea during a training exercise, killing at least one of the eight crew members on board, the defence minister said on Sunday.

The two SH-60 patrol helicopters were conducting anti-submarine exercises on Saturday night near Torishima in the remote Izu island group, off the southern coast of central Japan, Reuters reported.

Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a press conference the cause of the crash is under investigation. The two flight recorders had been discovered in close proximity to each other and the probability was high that the two helicopters had collided, he added.

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) and Coast Guard are searching for the remaining seven crew members.

Earlier on Saturday, MSDF Chief of Staff Yoshitaka Sakai indicated he did not believe there involvement from another country in the crash.

In a post on X, U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel offered his country’s assistance in search and rescue efforts.

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