The detainees, including a couple and a10-year-old child, were apprehended at Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta airportwhile trying to travel on fake passports, local police said, adding theyadmitted that they wanted to carry out jihad and be martyrs indefending IS.
The alleged organiser of the trip was also captured after the arrest.
The Jakarta Post quoted the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT)chief Saud Usman Nasution as saying that the number of IS supportersembarking from Indonesia soared to 264 in October from 86 in June.
In total, an estimated 514 Indonesians have gone to Syria and Iraq tofight alongside IS, and around half of them being students or migrantworkers based in nearby countries, Nasution added.-VNA