* Seven people killed, five of them attackers
* Canadian man dies, Dutchman among those wounded
* Assault claimed by Islamic State, in a first for Indonesia
* Mastermind believed to be Indonesian based in Syria
(Updates throughout)
By Kanupriya Kapoor and Darren Whiteside
JAKARTA, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Indonesia blamed Islamic State
for an attack by suicide bombers and gunmen in the heart of
Jakarta on Thursday that brought the radical group's violence to
the world's most populous Muslim country for the first time.
Just seven people were killed despite multiple blasts and a
gunfight, and five of them were the attackers themselves, but
the brazenness of their siege suggested a new brand of militancy
in a country where low-level strikes on police are common.
It took security forces about three hours to end the attack
near a Starbucks (O:SBUX) cafe and Sarinah's, Jakarta's oldest department
store, after a team of at least seven militants traded gunfire
with police and blew themselves up.
An Indonesian and a Canadian were killed in the attack and
20 people, including a Dutchman who works for the United Nations
Environment Programme, were wounded.
Two of the militants were taken alive, police said.
"Islamic State fighters carried out an armed attack this
morning targeting foreign nationals and the security forces
charged with protecting them in the Indonesian capital," Aamaaq
news agency, which is allied to the group, said on its Telegram
channel.
Jakarta's police chief told reporters: "ISIS is behind this
attack definitely," using a common acronym for Islamic State,
and he named an Indonesian militant called Bahrun Naim as the
man responsible for plotting it.
Police believe Naim is in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
The drama played out on the streets and on television
screens, with at least six explosions and a gunfight in a movie
theatre. But the low death toll pointed to the involvement of
local militants whose weapons were rudimentary, experts said.
ARMOURED CARS, HELICOPTERS
"The Starbucks cafe windows are blown out. I see three dead
people on the road. There has been a lull in the shooting but
someone is on the roof of the building and police are aiming
their guns at him," Reuters photographer Darren Whiteside said
as the attack unfolded.
Police responded in force within minutes. Black armoured
cars screeched to a halt in front of the Starbucks and sniper
teams were deployed around the neighbourhood as helicopters
buzzed overhead.
Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said one man entered the
Starbucks cafe and blew himself up, wounding several inside.
As people poured out of the cafe, two waiting gunmen opened
fire on them. At the same time, two militants attacked a police
traffic post nearby, using what he described as hand
grenade-like bombs.
After the militants had been overcome, a body still lay on
the street, a shoe nearby among the debris. The city centre's
notoriously jammed roads were largely deserted.
Indonesia has seen attacks by Islamist militants before, but
a coordinated assault by a team of suicide bombers and gunmen is
unprecedented and has echoes of the sieges seen in Mumbai seven
years ago and in Paris last November.
The last major militant attacks in Jakarta were in July
2009, with bombs at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.
The country had been on edge for weeks over the threat posed
by Islamist militants.
Counter-terrorism police had rounded up about 20 people with
suspected links to Islamic State, whose battle lines in Syria
and Iraq have included nationals from several Asian countries.
HISTORY OF ATTACKS
Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population, the
vast majority of whom practise a moderate form of Islam.
The country saw a spate of militant attacks in the 2000s,
the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday
island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists.
Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic
militant cells since then, but officials have more recently been
worrying about a resurgence inspired by groups such as Islamic
State and Indonesians who return after fighting with the group.
Alarm around the world over the danger stemming from Islamic
State increased after the Paris attacks and the killing of 14
people in California in December.
On Tuesday, a Syrian suicide bomber killed 10 German
tourists in Istanbul. Authorities there suspect the bomber had
links to Islamic State.
Harits Abu Ulya, a expert on militancy who knows Bahrun
Naim, the militant named by Indonesian authorities, said he
expected more attacks.
"This is an indication that he has been learning from the
Paris attacks and he has studied the strategy," he said. "I
still have doubts about the capability of the local militants to
carry out attacks on a bigger scale. But it is a possibility."
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Graphic on attack http://reut.rs/1JLScfg
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(Aditional reporting by Fergus Jensen, Gayatri Suroyo, Nilufar
Rizki, Eveline Danubrata, Randy Fabi and Fransiska Nangoy;
Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Nick Macfie and Mike
Collett-White)