a series of explosions in indonesia's capital jakarta. at least 17 people are killed. a video emerges of what appears to be one gunman involved in the attack and two others might be on the wrong. the indonesia president is cutting a trip short to return to the capital to deal with the crisin crisis you're watching al jazeera live from doha. here is what we know so far. there have been six explosions in the central district district

of jakarta near the presidential palace and u.n. offices. at least 17 people have been killed. a grenade was thrown at the police station station. security forces are at the scene and there is an exchange of gunfire going on. the latest from richard martin. >> reporter: the explosions tore through jakarta's down town area. at least six separate explosions and then gunfire. a multi prongd attack close to the united nations and a popular shopping mall. >> translation: we cannot be afraid. we cannot be defeated by these terror attacks and i urge people to stay calm because everything is under control. >> reporter: indonesian television has released these pictures of a man they say is a suspect. he is carrying a gun. one bomb is known to have gone off near a star bucks café and a

police post was destroyed in one of the blasts. the attacks were concentrated around tam rin street, a bus ee thoroughfare in central jakarta which is close to the u.n. offices and the presidential palace. the traffic and people which normally cloeg these streets are gone. armored vehicles have been deployed across the country. >> we have just seen the founder of some groups were in court just a day or so ago seeking his case overturned. he had been jailed for 15 years for terrorism offences. it would be extraordinary if an attack of this scale would be launched so quickly to him being - having an appearance in court, but there is coins dental timing

which certainly certainly raises that question. >> reporter: the president joko widodo has cut short a visit to oversee the operation let's hear from our correspondent in jakarta. what more do you have for us at this point? >> reporter: well, the picture that's emerging that it has been a very well-coordinated, very well-planned attack. i'm right here where it happened and the whole army is now on the streets at the site where the attack just took place a few hours ago. what now is emerging is that there were three on suicide bombers involved and there was also a grenade thrown. it was happening at three locations but very near to each other. one was at a star bucks café where a suicide bomber went in and blew himself up and another one at a police post. at the post there was a grenade

thrown. there were two other people who were carrying rifles and they were shooting at bystanders and also at police. five police have died and also five civilians have now confirmed died during this attack in the morning here in the central business district and economic heart of jakarta are there any claims of responsibility at this point in time? >> reporter: there's no claim for responsibility yet, but the police have just said that they've got a clear intelligence information that there would be a concert, according to the police the word "concert", are being used. that means there was going to be an attack and the police said this information came from i.s.i.l.-related groups, but what so far we have no clear confirmation. i'm sure the police are investigating all the leads.

there is a lot of cameras around that area. they have a lot of video footage of the exact moment. so far they also say that they have got - there is no-one on the run. they said they were looking for two people, the reports, but the police say they have controlled the reports of gunfire ongoing are now incorrect, so that is not happening any more and that the scene is just being sealed and combed over by security forces? >> reporter: the situation is ongoing. bombing might have been mistaken by gunfire. there was an explosion maybe ten minutes ago. the police just now found this suicide vest in star bucks. they detonated a few bombs there

which sounds like explosion and that might have been mistaken for gunfire. so far at the scene there is no gunfire going on and there's buildings around this area which are still being secured because, of course, nobody is sure about how many people are involved. the police say the shopping center, which i'm standing, so secured. they have looked everywhere, but there are a lot of other buildings around this area and they're still looking through these buildings one-by-one to see if there's any more attackers hiding there thank you for that. we will leave it there for the moment. we will take it further to paul rowland who is a political analyst. he joins us via skype. paul, i understand you were about to have a meeting when the explosions took place. >> yes. i was here for a meeting that was actually a public event

involving the minister of trade who was to speak to the jakarta foreign correspondent. by the time i got here it was pretty much deserted and the meeting had been cancelled. then i've since then been stuck in the hotel have you said that there were warnings circulating this morning, that something might be about to happen? >> yes. apparently there were warnings that went out to u.s. citizens from the u.s. embassy prior to this morning's attack advising people to stay away from that area i don't know how much time you've spent in jakarta, but do you get a sense of - did you have a seens of fare that security-- sense of fear that security might be breached at some time? >> there were warnings over the

new year and christmas period and i think police were on high alert at that time. it's not surprising that an attack has happened. of course, the time iing timing wasn't a day we would wake up expecting a terrorist attack there is intelligence, apparently, that there was going to be an attack on this day and information said to come from an i.s.i.l.-related group. does that surprise you? >> again, that doesn't surprise me terribly. there are a number of terror groups here in indonesia which have either ties to or claimed to have ties to i.s.i.l. in much the way as a franchise operation would operate, but a lot of these groups are desperate and

don't-- disparate and don't talk to one another. there hasn't yet been a claim of responsibility, but it could have been any one of a number of groups businessmen operating within the city of jakarta-- as a businessman - have you had a sense amongst your colleagues that it is a dangerous time to be there? >> it's a dangerous place and time to be in many economic centers around the world, as we know, and certainly there has been a discussion among people that i work with and have contact with. whether a paris-style attack would happen in jakarta or beirut type attack, obviously, with the attacks in turkey over the last two days there has been, you know, a growing sense of - i wouldn't say fear, but i

would say growing sense of concern here, that it was only a matter of time until an attack would happen here paul rowland, thank you very much for your experiences here in jakarta. now to a blogger and indonesian editor for global voices online. you are in touch with the online community with citizen journalists and so forth. was there any indication from what you were seeing that this was about to happen? >> thank you for having me, and no. actually, what happened today, there has been some very interest i interesting matters. there has been massive information which is online, but

with the good and bad of social media, people are helping one another and they're informing one another, for example, through hashtag jakarta safety check on twitter and i find it very positive and it's a great show of how humanity works in jakarta today this flow of information is generally for the good. is there any information coming from those who may purport to be the culprits in this crime? >> well, basically what the terrorists want this time is showmanship and the people understands that. even though there are social media users and smart phone users who happen to be on the ground, people are much more wise. for example, compared to what happened to the attack back in

2009, 2004 and 2001. i think that's all i can tell you give us an indication of how people feel about what is happening. what kind of things are they saying online? >> okay. well, what i can tell you is that people are explaining that they are not afraid of terrorism. they know what these attacks are. it's a way to make female afraid and bsh bsh people afraid-- people afraid and parcel liesd-- paralyseked. we're not and even though it is

shocking for a lot of people, life is continuing and we are against this kind of act and we condemn this kind of act is there any sense that people are dissatisfied with the security forces because there were a lot of warnings over the christmas and new year period that an attack may be about to happen, and now it has. >> that's the thing. there are some news, but many of them are hoax and we are very, very cautious about that because the last thing we know is that, you know, we're not sure of the sources. of course there are people who wants to pedal fear, but the last thing that the online people want is peda meddling information. so i think at the moment the right thing to do is not peda

meddling false information and leave it to the authorities as far as online content is concerned, there is a lot of misnotion, irresponsible sharing of information and graphic pictures and so for-- misinformation. >> they're still inform reporting some graphic images, but they're blurring the stuff juke, we appreciate your view on this. thank you. coming up we will have more on the attacks on indonesia and more news as well, so stay tuned for that.

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welcome back. the top stories here. a series of blasts have gone off at a busy district in the indonesian district of jakarta killing at least 17 people. it clues 7 civilians, five attackers and five policemen. so far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. let's go to our correspondent who is in jakarta. i see you've gone down to the street level. you're near the scene now. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: yes. as you can see a lot of army and police here on the streets close to the intersection, just a couple of metres away from the intersection where the attacks took place a few hours ago.

police is now still securing the area. they're going from one building to the other to make sure that there's no more attackers hiding inside. the picture that is emerging about the attacks is that it has been a very well-prepared and well-planned attacks. there were three suicide bombers, aring according to police, and two attacker whose were carrying rifles. the suicide bombers, first, one of them went into the star bucks café and then the small police post and the other one was in the area. it was all in the same area, but with all these people on the ground with their weapon $, they managed to create a lot of destruction and a lot of deaths a little little bit earlier you were talking about this intelligence that the police were talking about. can you tell us any more about what they have said, was it the word "concert" that you said? >> reporter: yes. exactly. the police have now been saying

that they got intelligence information that was coming from i.s.i.l. talking about a concert. apparently according to the police spokesman, this means that if they're talking about a concert, this means that an attack is upcoming. i'm not sure whether the police knows the details of this atashgs but they seems they had information ahead of this morning that something was coming up of course they had information over the christmas and new year's period that an attack might be imminent at that time. will people be posing questions at the security forces to secure the capital? >> reporter: yes. i'm afraid that will exactly happen because the police thought they were totally across what was going on, they were monitoring all these people that also the ones who have returned from syria. they said there were a few hundred who had joined i.s.i.l. before and who had come back to

indonesia, those who were well monitored. the police chief told me they were across all these people very clearly, very carefully, they were watching all their mohammed hamid suleiman, looking at all their mobile phone traffic and everything. they had this information in december, in new year's eve, a big attack was going to happen in jakarta and they managed to arrest dozens of people ahead of that. i think a lot of people then felt a lot safer and they thought all coast is clear, but then this happened. so this must have been a huge shock, mostly also for the police themselves as far as this incident is concerned, are police confident that they have arrested all the people responsible or is there a suggestion that there may yet be some perpetrators on the run? >> reporter: the police now says that they killed all of those

responsible for this attack, and the three suicide bombers, of course, they killed themselves. so they say there's no-one on the run, as far as they know, at the moment. that also shows that we are actually allowed to stand here right now and there is a lot of people on the streets roaming around already, although the scene is still very eerie and very quiet. as we speak, anti terror police are going to all these buildings around us right now. there is the sarinah shopping man that has been secured, but there is a lot of big buildings here and no-one knows if someone is still hiding in there or not thank you for that moving away from indonesia for a little while appeared by you some other news. at least five people have been killed and 14 injured in turkey.

local media say the attackers first detonated a bomb and then fired at security forces. hearing from andrew simmons live for us with the latest from istanbul. what is the latest on this blast? >> reporter: this was a devastating attack. a pick-up truck was driven to the entrance of cinar in the south-east and it detonated causing a lot of damage and devastating a civilian apartment block near by. that building collapsed. in total there are five dead. it is reported that two of those are family members, police family members, and the other three are reported to include a mother and a baby and they were killed in the apartment block according to reports.

lots of injuries, more than 39. now, this was a coordinated attack because nearby in a building came under rocket fire and machine gunfire. now, this is being put down to the pkk, the kurdistan workers party. the govern has said that it has all the hallmarks. this is the area where the pkk is highly active and many towns are under strict curfew since the collapse of the ceasefire in july last year which had lasted two years. thereof is a lot of tension, anger and desperate work by the emergency services going on in this situation now in the south east meanwhile we had the other attack in istanbul on tuesday. any update on what happened there?

>> reporter: the latest is really what the prime minister said in a news conference on wednesday night. he basically outlined that there were now five people detained who are suspected to have been accomplices to the suicide bomber, and he also hit out at the bashar al-assad regime in syria saying that they were actively assisting, effectively, i.s.i.l. in letting them get into moderate opposition areas of syria, escalating the situation there, and he really basically said that there seemed to be something odd about the whole attack in that all he would say was outside actors could have been involved. now, what that means is being really interpreted in different ways by people, whether there could be some foreign government involved with i.s.i.l. fronting the operation, but it was a

vague comment, but evidently intended to hit some sort of core. now, there is a mood of great fear throughout turkey right now. you've only got to look at the devastating scenes on that pkk attack to realise that there are so many fronts that turkey is having to fight what they describe as active terrorism in their country right now. when you consider how many hundreds of thousands of syrians are crossing the border and this suicide bomber wasn't on any list, he had actually been fingerprinted here in istanbul only a week before he went out with a suicide bomb. the threat to turkey's government, the threat to turkey civilians and, indeed, the threat to foreigners is highly significant right now and turkey is adamant that it needs more cooperation from other countries where he says so many of these i.s.i.l. fighters, that's the prime minister says, so many of these fighters are coming from

and really turkey should be understood more particularly by the west and people should show more allegiance to the country and stop accusing it of having earlier connections, effectively, to i.s.i.l. in that they let them cross the border because of the level of security. that has all changed, turkey says. there certainly is no indication that they were guilty of that and, really, there should be more cooperation. that's the message, politically, coming out of here, that security-wise a big challenge facing the security services and the army itself indeed. thank you. the u.s. and russian presidentials have been discuss-- presidents have been spoke on the phone about reducing violence and ensuring humanitarian access to civilians. the u.n. special envoy to syria said talks will go ahead as

planned. some rebel factions said they will not attend the talks unless aid supplies are made available to those in need. more aid is expected to be sent to madaya and two other villages on thursday. 400,000 people are living under siege across syria. meanwhile governments forced back by russian air strikes are continuing to make advances. >> reporter: devastation as far as the eye can see in sarmada. more than 100 people killed and ambulances taking away the injured. >> translation: we helped recover bodies. >> reporter: it is part of a renewed government campaign to cut off idlib province which is held by rebels. the government forces are also aiming to recapture the crossing on the turkish border then reclaim idlib. >> translation: it was a matter

of seconds. everything turned upside down. rockets and smoke everywhere. the young men started recovering the dead bodies. >> reporter: syrian tv also says government troops have captured the rebel stronghold of the north wernt province of latakia. the town was one of the last rebel front lines in the mostly government-held region. human rights groups say more than 120 air strikes have been carried out in 48 hours to support the irn army's offensive. since the russian air offensive began in september, there have been more than five thousand air strikes. russian air strikes are also reported to have targeted the suburbs of aleppo city. several schools were hit killing at least 12 children and their teachers. >> translation: when the plane hit the school, there were many markers. this class suffered the most and the teacher was killed. >> reporter: in the countryside

surrounding the capital damascus syrian armed forces helicopters have dropped bottoms. human rights groups say at least a dozen barrel bombs were dropped. east of damascus at least three children and four adults were reported killed when a neighborhood was shelled in douma. a home have video shows volunteers pulling a wounded child from under the rubble. the united nations says the number of syrians killed during the kril war has now surpassed a quarter million. -- civilian war. talks to end the five-year war are scheduled this month australia has denied a request from the u.s. for a greater military commitment against i.s.i.l. in syria and iraq. the australian defense minister says there are no plans to go beyond what the country is already doing. the prime minister will visit

washington next week to visit president obama and there they plan to discuss the conflict as well as other security issues. aljazeera.com is the address for all the news we're covering, including that blast in jakarta. the country last year, finding a final resting place can be difficult and expensive. but the funeral industry is stepping up to the challenge finding innovative ways to send their clients into the afterlife. i'm steve chao. on this episode of 101 east we take a look at how japan says