Islamic extremists, including a family of suicide bombers, targeted three churches on 12 May that killed at least 12 people, not including the assailants.
The father of the family that killed the Christians was the suspected head of the local cell of an Islamic State-inspired network called Jemaah Ansharut Daulah.
Dita Futrianto was reported to have dropped off his wife Puji Kuswati and their two daughters, aged 9 and 12, at Diponegoro Indonesian Christian Church in Surabaya, East Java. With her two daughters present, Kuswati hugged a parishioner before detonating her bomb, according to a security guard. At Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church, Futrianto then drove his car onto the church grounds and detonated explosives.
Earlier that day his sons, aged 16 and 18, had ridden motorcycles into Santa Maria Catholic Church and detonated their explosives. Two other churches were targeted as well, but bombs failed to explode at St Jacob’s Church in West Surabaya and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral, according to the Post. IS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
