KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 — Malaysians are climbing the ladder in the Islamic State (IS) terror network as they leave janitorial jobs to become suicide bombers and snipers, police say.
Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division head Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ayub Khan told local daily The Star that Malaysians were being trained by the terror group to carry out special missions in a bid to reclaim territory in Iraq that government forces had taken over.
“Our intelligence show that they are relying more on Malaysians now to carry out strike missions against several key structures in Iraq,” Ayub was quoted saying.
Ayub said this came to light after three Malaysians who recently died in Iraq were believed to be on special ops missions, one of whom was a 43-year-old man named Zid Saharani Mohamed Esa who was killed in a clash with Iraqi forces in Bayji, Iraq, last August.
“We believe he was one of the snipers assigned to take out targets at a Iraqi government structure in Bayji,” he said.
The two others killed separately in Iraq last month — Muhammad Syazani Mohd Salim, 28, and Fadzly Ariff Zainal Ariff, 31 — were believed to be part of an IS infantry and trained for suicide bombing respectively, according to Ayub.
The Star quoted Ayub as saying that the police estimated that 69 Malaysians have joined the IS in Syria.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reportedly told the United Nations in New York yesterday that Malaysia was leading the Asean region in combating terrorism, including the spreading of IS beliefs.
