Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Indonesia’s ‘most dangerous’ terrorists fighting in Marawi

JAKARTA — Indonesia said yesterday that scores of Indonesian militants currently battling Philippine troops in Marawi are members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an umbrella group that has been branded by the authorities as the country’s “most dangerous terrorist organisation”.

Police and military forces conducting a house-to-house search as part of clearing operations in Marawi City on Wednesday. Indonesia said that members of terrorist group JAD have been involved in the battle. Photo: Reuters

Police and military forces conducting a house-to-house search as part of clearing operations in Marawi City on Wednesday. Indonesia said that members of terrorist group JAD have been involved in the battle. Photo: Reuters

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

JAKARTA — Indonesia said yesterday that scores of Indonesian militants currently battling Philippine troops in Marawi are members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an umbrella group that has been branded by the authorities as the country’s “most dangerous terrorist organisation”.

The National Counter-Terrorism Agency chairman, Commander-General Suhardi Alius, said these militants had joined other foreign fighters and Philippine radical groups in the current siege at the southern Philippine city. “We are monitoring (the situation in Marawi) and they are definitely from (JAD),” he told Tempo news portal.

Cmdr-Gen Alius’ remarks were supported by Mr Ali Fauzi, a former member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, which signed a peace deal with the government in 2014. “Most JAD members are from West Java, followed by Central Java, East Java and South Sulawesi,” he said.

JAD is a network of almost two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that was formed in 2015 and pledges allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi. JAD has been linked to numerous plots in Indonesia, including the attack in Jakarta last year in which eight people were killed, including the four perpetrators.

Indonesian police chief General Tito Karnavian had described JAD as more radical than Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda-linked group that was behind the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed over 200 people.

Philippine security forces are currently fighting Islamist gunmen who rampaged through Marawi, a largely Muslim city of 200,000 in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.

The siege started on May 23 after government forces attempted to arrest their leader, Isnilon Hapilon.

The battle for Marawi has raised concern that the IS, on the back foot in Syria and Iraq, is building a regional base on the Philippine island of Mindanao that could also pose a threat to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Officials have said that of the several hundred militants, about 40 are from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Chechnya.

Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said last weekend that of the 1,200 IS operatives in the Philippines, around 40 are from Indonesia. The Philippine authorities have named seven Indonesians allegedly involved in the Marawi battle.

Indonesian police spokesman Inspector General Setyo Wasisto said yesterday that the police have started investigations into the identities of those who help facilitate militants’ travel to Marawi.

To date, police have arrested an individual identified by the initials R Sfor allegedly helping Indonesians to go to Turkey, Syria and the Southern Philippines to fight for the IS.

“He allegedly sent money to south Philippines around February 2017,” said another police spokesman Martinus Sitompul. AGENCIES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.