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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia's counter-terrorism squad has arrested three Islamic extremists accused of plotting bomb attacks against police using high-explosive materials, an official said Monday.
The suspects, including a 17-year-old student, were arrested Friday in West Java's Bogor district where they had planned an attack against a police brigade headquarters and a suicide bombing at a police station, National Police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said.
He said the suspects, identified as Anang Rachman, Muhammad Mulyadi and Abid Faqihuddin, also planned to hack police to death at a nearby traffic post.
"We have seized highly explosive materials" from them, Wasisto said.
He said police are questioning the men at a police detention center in Depok, just outside the capital, Jakarta, to determine whether they had links to extremist networks in Indonesia affiliated with the Islamic State group.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since bombings on the tourist island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. The Jemaah Islamiyah military network, which was blamed for the Bali attacks, was neutralized following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders. But new threats have emerged in recent times from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local "infidels" instead of Westerners.
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