BREAKING: Confusion Abounds as Police Claim to Have ‘Incapacitated’ Attackers

Jakarta. Police say they have arrested four people and killed three others believed to have been responsible for a series of explosions and gunfire in the downtown Sarinah area of Central Jakarta on Thursday, but confusion abounds about the true number of perpetrators and victims.

In a Facebook post, the National Police said there were a total of seven perpetrators, three of whom had been shot dead and four “incapacitated and arrested.” They also said that reports that the assailants were heavily armed and riding motorcycles were not true.

The statement, however, contradicts an earlier claim by the police that the series of explosions in the area included blasts triggered by four suicide bombers. In a separate statement, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan said there were five attackers, two of whom were killed in suicide bombings. Police have also been less than clear about the explosions, at one point calling them grenade blasts, before saying they were suicide bombings. Budi, in his statement, said they were grenades.

There is still a lot of confusion about the number of perpetrators and the death toll in the aftermath of the explosions, which started at 10:50 a.m. in the parking lot outside the Starbucks coffee shop at the Skyline building (referred to variously in the local media as the Cakrawala building and the Djakarta Theater building), on the intersection of Jalan M.H. Thamrin and Jalan K.H. Wahid Hasyim. The area is more popularly known as the Sarinah area, for the department store next to the Skyline building and right in front of the police post.

A series of six more explosions followed, including at the police post at the intersection. Police arriving at the scene then exchanged gunfire with the perpetrators, at least two of whom hid out in the Cakrawala building, according to police. Budi claimed they were killed in a shootout with police, although reports suggest they were among those said to have been incapacitated and arrested.

Meanwhile, the number of victims is also in dispute. In the immediate aftermath of the blasts, witnesses said they saw at least six bodies in the area, although it is now known which of them may have been the suicide bombers. Initial reports said three police officers, from the police post, were killed.

At least nine people were injured, including a Dutch national, according to a list published by officials at Gatot Subroto Army Hospital in Central Jakarta. The eight other people on the list are Indonesians, two of them police officers.

Details about the attack remain scant and conflicting, but the Jakarta Globe will continue to update the story as more information comes in.

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