IS announces expansion into S.E. Asia with attacks, threats
Feb 1, 2016 23:29:21 GMT -5
Post by Berean on Feb 1, 2016 23:29:21 GMT -5
Islamic State announces expansion into Southeast Asia with attacks, threats
By Luke Hunt - Special to The Washington Times - - Sunday, January 31, 2016
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — As Islamic State branches out from its base in Syria and Iraq, fears are mounting here that Southeast Asia is emerging as a new target of opportunity for the violent jihadi group.
In some cases, Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, is supplanting established radical Islamist groups — often with ties to the rival al Qaeda — and in other cases is linking up with local jihadi groups that have long battled governments in the region.
A relentless U.S.-led bombing campaign in Islamic State’s Middle East stronghold has forced the group into a tactical retreat there, but has also had the effect of steering many hard-line insurgents to return home to their country of origin, where authorities fear their notoriously harsh brand of warfare — and the lessons they learned in Syria — will spread.
Just in January, Islamic State leaders claimed responsibility for a strike in Jakarta that left seven people dead, and issued an open threat to Malaysia that it would attack if the government pursued its harsh crackdown on Muslim extremists.
The Katibah Nusantara, a unit of Southeast Asians who fight for Islamic State in Syria, with roots dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, issued the warning last week to the government in Kuala Lampur.
“If you catch us, we will only increase in number. But if you let us be, we will be closer to our goal of bringing back the rule of the caliph,” it warned Malaysian officials in a video. “We will never bow down to the democratic system of governance as we will only follow Allah’s rules.”
U.S. and Western intelligence analysts have long feared the Islamic State would try to export its violent extremist model beyond its Middle East base. In addition to spectacular Islamic State-inspired attacks in places like Paris and California, the group has established a major outpost in war-torn Libya and is said to be seeking recruits and affiliates in countries such as Russia and Afghanistan. Southeast Asia, with some of the world’s largest Muslim communities and a history of domestic jihadi movements, is seen as a particularly fertile recruiting ground.
“This type of asymmetric warfare will continue and probably increase as more and more Muslims will be radicalized by the global war on terror,” said Peter Maguire, a professor with the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Hundreds of militants were recruited from the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia — the world’s single most populous Muslim nation — as Isalmic State began establishing its “caliphate” three years ago. In Jemaah Islamiyah (“Islamic Congregation”), a radical Islamic terror group that once operated cells across the region, Islamic State could study an organization that was strikingly similar both tactically and ideologically.
An updated estimate issued in December by the private intelligence consulting firm The Soufan Group numbers Islamic State recruits from Southeast Asia as “at least 600,” with a large majority coming from Indonesia.
“Since July 2014, the Islamic State has posted propaganda and recruiting videos aimed at persuading Indonesians and Malaysians [to travel to] Syria with their families,” the Soufan survey reported. “One video showed Malay-speaking children training with weapons in Islamic State-held territory, while two Malaysians were featured in another Islamic State video of the beheading of a Syrian man.”
Jemaah Islamiyah linked up with al Qaeda and unleashed a bloody bombing campaign throughout the 2000s, claiming hundreds of lives in pursuit of their demands for a single Muslim state across much of Southeast Asia, including parts of northern Australia, with a caliphate at the helm. At its height the group claimed some 5,000 fighters.
Most of its members have since been jailed or killed, and surviving remnants are adopting a soft approach to the new crop of jihadis while maintaining ties with al Qaeda and its affiliate al Nusra.
The region’s security threats were not lost on Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who late last month made a short tour of Cambodia, Laos and China ahead of a summit between President Obama and leaders of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to be held at Sunnylands, California, in mid-February.
U.S. relations with Cambodia have been held back by human rights abuses and Phnom Penh’s tilt toward China’s maritime ambitions in the highly contested South China Sea, but Mr. Kerry found some common ground with Prime Minister Hun Sen, the region’s longest-serving leader.
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By Luke Hunt - Special to The Washington Times - - Sunday, January 31, 2016
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — As Islamic State branches out from its base in Syria and Iraq, fears are mounting here that Southeast Asia is emerging as a new target of opportunity for the violent jihadi group.
In some cases, Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, is supplanting established radical Islamist groups — often with ties to the rival al Qaeda — and in other cases is linking up with local jihadi groups that have long battled governments in the region.
A relentless U.S.-led bombing campaign in Islamic State’s Middle East stronghold has forced the group into a tactical retreat there, but has also had the effect of steering many hard-line insurgents to return home to their country of origin, where authorities fear their notoriously harsh brand of warfare — and the lessons they learned in Syria — will spread.
Just in January, Islamic State leaders claimed responsibility for a strike in Jakarta that left seven people dead, and issued an open threat to Malaysia that it would attack if the government pursued its harsh crackdown on Muslim extremists.
The Katibah Nusantara, a unit of Southeast Asians who fight for Islamic State in Syria, with roots dating back to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, issued the warning last week to the government in Kuala Lampur.
“If you catch us, we will only increase in number. But if you let us be, we will be closer to our goal of bringing back the rule of the caliph,” it warned Malaysian officials in a video. “We will never bow down to the democratic system of governance as we will only follow Allah’s rules.”
U.S. and Western intelligence analysts have long feared the Islamic State would try to export its violent extremist model beyond its Middle East base. In addition to spectacular Islamic State-inspired attacks in places like Paris and California, the group has established a major outpost in war-torn Libya and is said to be seeking recruits and affiliates in countries such as Russia and Afghanistan. Southeast Asia, with some of the world’s largest Muslim communities and a history of domestic jihadi movements, is seen as a particularly fertile recruiting ground.
“This type of asymmetric warfare will continue and probably increase as more and more Muslims will be radicalized by the global war on terror,” said Peter Maguire, a professor with the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Hundreds of militants were recruited from the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia — the world’s single most populous Muslim nation — as Isalmic State began establishing its “caliphate” three years ago. In Jemaah Islamiyah (“Islamic Congregation”), a radical Islamic terror group that once operated cells across the region, Islamic State could study an organization that was strikingly similar both tactically and ideologically.
An updated estimate issued in December by the private intelligence consulting firm The Soufan Group numbers Islamic State recruits from Southeast Asia as “at least 600,” with a large majority coming from Indonesia.
“Since July 2014, the Islamic State has posted propaganda and recruiting videos aimed at persuading Indonesians and Malaysians [to travel to] Syria with their families,” the Soufan survey reported. “One video showed Malay-speaking children training with weapons in Islamic State-held territory, while two Malaysians were featured in another Islamic State video of the beheading of a Syrian man.”
Jemaah Islamiyah linked up with al Qaeda and unleashed a bloody bombing campaign throughout the 2000s, claiming hundreds of lives in pursuit of their demands for a single Muslim state across much of Southeast Asia, including parts of northern Australia, with a caliphate at the helm. At its height the group claimed some 5,000 fighters.
Most of its members have since been jailed or killed, and surviving remnants are adopting a soft approach to the new crop of jihadis while maintaining ties with al Qaeda and its affiliate al Nusra.
The region’s security threats were not lost on Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who late last month made a short tour of Cambodia, Laos and China ahead of a summit between President Obama and leaders of the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to be held at Sunnylands, California, in mid-February.
U.S. relations with Cambodia have been held back by human rights abuses and Phnom Penh’s tilt toward China’s maritime ambitions in the highly contested South China Sea, but Mr. Kerry found some common ground with Prime Minister Hun Sen, the region’s longest-serving leader.
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