Islamic State

Indonesia won't repatriate hundreds of IS recruits

Indonesia has said it will not bring home nearly 700 hundred nationals who joined the Islamic State group in the Middle East over security fears, but added it would still consider repatriating young children.The issue sharply divided the world's biggest Muslim majority nation with its president saying this week that he was not in favour of bringing back suspected militants and their families who went to Syria and other countries to fight for the group's now crumbled caliphate.Securi

13 February 2020
0

Philippines rescues British couple from jihadists

Philippine soldiers on Monday rescued a British man and his wife from Islamic State-linked jihadists nearly two months after the couple were kidnapped from their beach resort in the nation's south, authorities said.Troops recovered the pair after a firefight with gunmen from the Abu Sayyaf group on the restive southern island of Jolo, which is a stronghold of the kidnap-for-ransom gang that has been behind some of the worst attacks in the Philippines."There was a brief exchange of f

26 November 2019
0

Dozens arrested after Indonesian suicide bombing

Dozens of suspected Indonesian militants have been rounded up after a suicide bomber linked to the Islamic State group killed himself and wounded six others in a police station attack last week, police said Monday.Some 45 suspects have been arrested since the Wednesday bombing in Medan on Sumatra island, while two bombmakers were shot dead during a raid, according to authorities.“The pair resisted arrest and tried to attack police with sharp weapons and an air gun,” National Police spokesman

20 November 2019
0

One Dead, Six Injured In Indonesian Suicide Bombing

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station in Indonesia on Wednesday, killing himself and wounding six others, according to authorities who described the 24-year-old attacker as a “lone wolf”.The motive for the attack was not immediately known, but police stations have been frequent targets for radicals in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, which has long struggled with Islamist militancy.The blast happened around 8:45 am (0145 GMT) at the police compound in Medan on Sumatr

14 November 2019
0

Indonesia beefs-up security after IS-linked attack

Indonesian leader Joko Widodo ordered beefed-up security measures Friday after two militants from an Islamic State (IS)-linked terror group stabbed his chief security minister, with the politician in hospital recovering from emergency surgery.Police were searching for more suspects in the wake of the assassination attempt on Wiranto, a 72-year-old former army chief who goes by one name.The minister was knifed twice in the stomach as he left his vehicle in Pandeglang on Java island during an o

12 October 2019
0

Jihad in Thailand’s deep south?

On 24 September, a Thai student, who has not been identified, was taken into custody by Egyptian authorities in Cairo following the circulation of an online video clip that showed him voicing support for an “Islamic revolution” in an interview. According to the Thai embassy in Cairo, photos allegedly linked to the Islamic State (IS) had also been discovered on his mobile phone.The student was a resident of Yala in Thailand’s insurgency-torn deep south.

6 October 2019
0

Indonesia's child bombers get a second chance

Thrown off a motorbike as her parents blew themselves up, nine-year-old Mila was the sole survivor of a family suicide bombing, part of a wave of such attacks involving children that rocked Indonesia.Orphaned and radicalised, there were concerns for her future after the Islamic State (IS)-inspired strike, but a renewed focus on rehabilitating the children of terror suspects may offer Mila, and others like her, a chance at normality.She is among a small group who are being treated at a Jakarta

6 July 2019
0

Philippine suicide attacks under IS influence

A number of apparent suicide bombings in the Philippines over the past 12 months are a worrying escalation of militancy driven by the influence of the Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia, security experts say. A decades-old Islamist insurgency in the southern Philippines has killed tens of thousands.But suicide attacks have been used extremely rarely, with foreign fighters blamed for the few that have been carried out.Authorities now fear however the most recent suspected suicide at

3 July 2019
0

Deadly bombing in south Philippines

Five people including three soldiers were killed on Friday in a bombing targeting an elite army unit in the Philippines's restive south, which the Islamic State (IS) claimed was a suicide attack, authorities and experts said.The military said the kidnap-for-ransom group and IS-affiliate Abu Sayyaf was likely behind the midday blast on the island of Jolo, which also left nine other soldiers wounded.IS claimed the bombing was the work of two suicide attackers, according to tweets from Rita

30 June 2019
0

Danger: Rohingya

Following the conclusion of the 34th ASEAN Summit last weekend in Bangkok, Thailand, it came as no surprise that the bloc was heavily criticised for suggesting Rohingya refugees will repatriate back to Myanmar within two years. More than 740,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since a 2017 army crackdown on the stateless minority.

25 June 2019
0

Dutch hostage killed by Philippine rebels

A Dutch birdwatcher held by Islamic State-linked militants was killed Friday during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers in the southern Philippines, according to the military, which said he was shot by his captors as he tried to escape.Ewold Horn had been held since 2012 by the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and was fatally wounded as soldiers fought a 90-minute gun battle with the jihadists on their stronghold, Jolo island. The Dutch foreign ministry confirmed Horn d

2 June 2019
0

Will Marawi become a terrorist magnet?

Two years after the Philippine city of Marawi was overrun by jihadists it remains in ruins, with experts warning that stalled reconstruction efforts are bolstering the appeal of extremist groups in the volatile region.The 23 May, 2017 invasion by gunmen waving the black flag of the Islamic State (IS) group sparked a five-month battle that shattered swathes of the southern city.Demolition of blast-pocked buildings has finally begun, but after several false starts the government does not expect

24 May 2019
0