Indonesia | Bomb maker wanted to join Philippine fight

Indonesian police said yesterday that a man whose home-made bomb accidentally exploded in the West Java city of Bandung was obsessed with the idea of joining Islamic State group-affiliated militants who’ve occupied parts of a city in the southern Philippines since mid-May.

A West Java police spokesman said that Agus Wiguna, 21, was arrested following the explosion on Saturday at his rented house and was probably acting alone.

The police also said Wiguna admitted to wanting to join IS militants fighting in the Philippine city of Marawi after carrying out his planned attacks.

The pressure cooker bomb allegedly prepared by Wiguna exploded unintentionally but caused no casualties. It was the second terror-related incident in Bandung since February, when police shot a suspected militant after his bomb exploded in a vacant lot and he fled into a municipal building and set it alight.

Indonesian police have arrested more than 40 suspected militants following a twin suicide bombing on May 24 in Jakarta that killed three officers and injured 11 other people, including five civilians, in the deadliest militant attack in the capital in a year.

Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have agreed to intensify their fight against violent Islamic militants. Analysts say the southern Philippines is at risk of becoming a new IS base as territory it controls in Syria and Iraq is captured by an international coalition seeking to defeat the group. MDT/AP