Indonesia to strengthen its personnel for curbing IS-linked attacks

Indonesia on Friday announced that its counter-terrorism police force will deploy 600 extra personnel next year to monitor Islamic State (IS) networks and to curb such attacks.

According to ChannelNewsAsia, hundreds of investigators and surveillance personnel will join an existing force of about 500 officers at Detachment 88, a police unit tasked with uprooting militant networks and foiling attacks.

National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said, "We will do this to monitor terrorist networks more closely since ISIS networks remain in Indonesia and South-East Asia. It's more due to increasing 'lone wolf' activity and the dynamics of ISIS networks around the world."

Indonesia has seen a resurgence in homegrown militancy in recent years, largely inspired by the dreaded terrorist group. Hundreds of Indonesians are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join IS, but many have returned, as it has lost huge swathes of its territories.

Detachment 88 was set up in 2003, after bomb attacks in the popular island resort of Bali in 2002, that killed more than 200 people. It was initially trained, funded and equipped by Australia and the United States (US).

The increase of personnel in the counter-terrorism police force comes at a time, when the country's capital Jakarta witnessed double explosions on a bus terminus in May this year, killing eight people, including the perpetrators, and injuring 11 of them.