Indonesian police gun down two militants linked to 2019 Philippine church bombing

Indonesian police on Wednesday shot down two Indonesian militants linked to 2019 Philippine church blast, said the authorities. The officers arrested scores of pro-Islamic State radicals. Indonesia's counter-terrorism squad Densus 88, raided a hideout of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an extremist group. The hideout was located in Makassar city on Sulawesi island.

Two suspects were gunned down when they "resisted arrest" and attacked officers, police said, adding that a third suspect suffered gunshot injuries and was being treated in hospital.

Another 17 militants were detained.

The police said later on Wednesday that two dead suspects were linked to financing Philippines's worst terror attack in years. The bombing had killed 21 and injured many in 2019.

The pair were later identified as an Indonesian militant and his wife.

"The two were involved in transferring money to the bombers of the church in Jolo, Philippines," national police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan told reporters, without elaborating.

In early 2019, two explosions ripped through a Catholic church on the Philippines' Muslim-majority island of Jolo, killing worshippers at Sunday mass and security forces -- raising fears about growing links between militants in Southeast Asia.

IS claimed responsibility for the cathedral blast, saying two suicide bombers detonated explosive belts.

The Jolo attack was carried out days after voters approved expanding Muslim self-rule in the south aimed at ending a decades-old rebellion for independence or autonomy for the sizeable Islamic minority of the mainly Catholic Philippines.

(With AFP inputs)