Suicide bomber attacks Indonesian police, 26 wounded

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in Indonesia on Friday, wounding people, police said, in the most serious incident in a recent spate of attacks by Islamist militants.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has been the scene of some major attacks by militants linked to al Qaeda over the past decade but there have been few big attacks recently.

The bombing came during Friday prayers in the town of Cirebon, about 200 km (125 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta. Among the injured were police officers and local government officials.

Police say militants in Indonesia have recently changed tactics and are now going after government and law enforcement officials as well as Western targets.

"The police have been the most active in fighting terrorism and that is why they are furious with us," said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar.

Members of Indonesia's anti-terrorist unit were at the scene, trying to identify the bomber and what group was behind the attack.

The minister coordinating justice, political and security affairs, Djoko Suyanto, said that although this was not the first attack on a mosque in Indonesia, this sort of target had not been expected.

"We hope that the security devices around the police office can reveal the perpetrator. This is something new. Even though we scan people entering the police building, the mosque is for everyone," said Nanan Sukarna, national deputy police chief.

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The head of Indonesia's National Counter-Terrorism Agency, Ansyaad Mbai, told Reuters in a recent interview that militants were using parcel bombs and targeting minorities to try to push an Islamist agenda and warned that more attacks were likely.

Militant attacks and incidents of religious intolerance have risen in recent months, with mobs lynching three followers of a minority Islamic sect and torching two churches on Java island.

Parcel bombs have also been sent to people involved in promoting pluralism and counter-terrorism in Jakarta.

In December, police said that an Islamist terrorist group on

Sumatra island planned to attack foreign workers at a unit of oil firm Chevron Corp and ambush tourists.

In July 2009, militant groups orchestrated attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta, killing nine people. That broke a four-year lull in militant attacks in the country.

In 2002, bombs killed 202 people in nightclubs on the resort island of Bali.

Friday's attack has prompted fresh calls from the intelligence agency, the national counter-terrorism agency and the political, security and justice ministry for stronger laws to net militants before they launch attacks.

"There are public figures that are still insinuating that bombing a particular place can guarantee someone goes to heaven. That deviates from religious teaching, but our laws can't stop that kind of thing," Suyanto said.

He said the intelligence agency should be allowed to wiretap suspected militants and prosecute people spreading hate through speech.

Indonesia's parliament is debating a new intelligence law, while the government is discussing revising the counter-terrorism law to include hate speech and provide longer detention times for suspected militants.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Alan Raybould)