By Luke Hunt
The success of militants in Iraq may be inspiring radicals in Southeast Asia.
The threat of Islamic militants deploying terror tactics across Southeast Asia is making an unwelcome comeback. Driven in part by the relentless drive into Iraq by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the threat has already emerged in Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Authorities in these countries fear home-grown Islamic militants in league with Baghdadi and his Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will return and plot their own caliphate, not unlike Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) did when it launched its own terror campaign in league with al-Qaeda more than a decade ago.
Arrests have been made in Malaysia amid reports that four new terrorist groups have emerged to stake a claim over much of mainland Southeast Asia. All are Sunni Muslims with Shi’ites in their sights. Police are also looking for another five Malaysian men who fled to the Philippines where they are believed to be in hiding with the Abu Sattaf.
The arrests followed the release of a video from ISIS senior clerics, titled There Is No Life Without Jihad.
In the video, Abu Muthanna al Yemeni from Britain boasts about the many countries that have supplied ISIS mercenaries, adding: “We have brothers from Bangladesh, from Iraq, from Cambodia, Australia, UK.”
Muslim leaders in Cambodia rejected the claims although diplomats says hundreds of foreign nationals, including Khmers, are fighting with ISIS. Among them are those who studied in madrassas in the Middle East.
Read the full story at The Diplomat