Suicide bombing on cathedral in Indonesia after palm Mass has left at least 14 injured

At least 14 people were injured Sunday in a suicide bombing against Makassar Cathedral in eastern Indonesia, after the Mass of Ramos, a celebration that marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians.

Outside the building, located in the southern part of the Sulawesi Islands, there were remains of bodies mutilated by the powerful blast at 10:30 a.m. (3:30 p.m. GMT) At least 14 people were injured, police said, without giving details of his state of health.

“Two people were riding a motorbike when the explosion occurred in the church gate, the attackers tried to enter,” police spokesman Argo Yuwono said. “The motorcycle was destroyed and there are human remains. We continue to collect the remains and we are trying to identify the gender of the attackers, ”he added.

Television footage showed damaged vehicles near the building, which was cordoned off by police.

The explosion occurred shortly after the end of a mass at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, seat of the Archdiocese of Makassar, a port city of 1.5 million inhabitants and the capital of the province. from South Sulawesi, on the island of Celebes.

– At the end of mass –

“We had finished mass and people were going home when the explosion happened,” priest Willem Tulak told Metro TV. I affirm that a parishioner tried to prevent what he described as a “suicide bomber” who tried to enter the church.

According to the police, it was a security guard who prevented the motorcycle from entering the perimeter of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Palm Sunday marks the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, according to Christian tradition, the beginning of Holy Week.

Christian churches have been targeted by extremists in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world.

In May 2018, a family of six – including two girls aged 9 and 12 and two teenagers aged 16 and 18 – threw bombs at three churches in Surabaya, the second largest city in the archipelago.

On the same day, a second family apparently accidentally detonated a bomb in an apartment, and the next day a third family carried out a suicide bombing attack on a police station.

These attacks, which left a total of 15 dead and 13 dead among the attackers – including five children – were the bloodiest committed in the archipelago in a decade. The three radicalized families were linked to the radical movement Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which supports the Islamic State (IS) group. The attacks were claimed by ISIS.

More than 200 people died in the 2002 attacks on the island of Bali attributed to the Indonesian Islamist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).