Islamic State (IS) militants launched their first major strike in South-east Asia yesterday, using bombs and gunfire to stage an attack in the heart of Indonesia’s capital that echoed a similar siege in Paris in November.

The siege in Jakarta left at least seven people dead and scores injured. Five of the seven people killed were the attackers themselves.

It took security forces about three hours to end the siege near a Starbucks cafe and Sarinah, Jakarta’s oldest department store, after a team of around seven militants traded gunfire with police officers and blew themselves up.

… “We know that IS has the desire to declare a province in this region,” said Kumar Ramakrishna, a counter-terrorism analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

… “The governments in this region must work together to prevent the creation of a satellite of the caliphate because if such a satellite is declared, the threat in Southeast Asia will grow,” said regional terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna.