5 suspected militants nabbed in Indonesia

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JAKARTA: Indonesian police yesterday arrested five suspected Islamist militants and seized chemicals near Jakarta that they said were being used to make bombs for attacks on the presidential palace later this month.

Two of the five, a husband and wife, had been deported from Hong Kong for allegedly spreading radical ideology and the group had studied bomb-making techniques from a website run by an Indonesian believed to be fighting with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), police said.

Indonesia has seen a series of small-scale attacks inspired by ISIS, but most have been amateurishly planned and executed.

Police have been concerned about suspected militants getting more sophisticated after twin pressure cooker bombs killed three police officers at a Jakarta bus station in May.

"This is perhaps the first time such a method has been used in West Java, involving very dangerous chemicals," said provincial police spokesman Yusri Yunus, adding that several stores had declined to sell the chemicals to the suspects.  - REUTERS