PETALING JAYA, Dec 23 — The collapse of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) caliphate in Iraq and Syria last month could see the group making desperate attempts to regroup in other regions of the world including Southeast Asia, an expert has suggested.
US State Department coordinator for counterterrorism Nathan A. Sales told Malay Mail that the IS already has its affiliates established in the region.
“We are worried about the rise of IS affiliates globally. Certainly we have seen a lot of IS related activity in Southeast Asia,” Sales said through a conference call.
“We are also seeing it in the Sinai Peninsula, in Egypt, and there have been IS inspired attacks here in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.”
Sales said the routing of the group from its territory meant governments now face the challenge of identifying, tracking and acting against returning fighters.
“So the challenge now is not just to prevent outbound terrorists, outbound fighters who are going to a war zone.
“The challenge is to track those who have returned home or to third countries, perhaps to carry out their mission of terrorism,” he said.
There was an estimated 40,000 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria during the group’s high point in 2014 and 2015, when it occupied a large swathe of land in both countries.
In April 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had told parliament that nearly 100 Malaysians had been arrested as sympathisers, including 70 armed forces members.
According to numbers issued by the police, there are an estimated 50 to 60 known Malaysians currently in Syria who had gone there to fight under the IS banner.
Among these Malaysian IS commander in Syria was Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, credited as having ordered the Movida nightclub attack in June last year.
He had been reported as having been killed this May, but was succeeded by four other Malaysians according to Bukit Aman Special Branch’s Counter-Terrorism Division assistant director Datuk Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay.
Sales said the recent success by the Philippines military in the city of Marawi, while encouraging, should prompt regional governments to be mindful of surviving fighters would make their way to other countries to continue their struggle.
“It is incumbent upon the rest of the international community to continue to assist the government of the Philippines and neighbouring governments — Malaysia and Indonesia, to ensure the foreign fighters and the indigenous local fighters are not able to reconstitute themselves elsewhere.”
Sales also said the terror groups continued to give priority to targeting civil aviation, a threat which had been specifically addressed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2396 on foreign terrorist fighters.
“As we saw in 2015, when Egypt based IS-Sinai downed [Russian airline] Metrojet Flight 9268, terrorist groups continue to prioritise attacks on civil aviation.
“We need member states to raise the standards for aviation safety and security especially to secure against insider threats as well as cargo security,” he said.
The resolution, passed on December 21, aims to provide governments with tools to act against returning jihadists fighters from the Middle East by making it mandatory for all UN member states to use Passenger Name Record data and Advanced Passenger Information to stop terrorist travel.
“Our adversaries are constantly evolving, the terrorist threat is an adaptive threat and we in the international community need to evolve and adapt in the same way,” he said.
“That’s what this resolution helps us do, it gives us a toolkit to address a deadly threat, but one that can be defeated through the collective efforts of the international community.”
Experts have long warned of the threat of returning fighters from the Middle East, but the threat has grown sharply as IS is estimated to have lost 96 per cent of its territory, including its capital of Raqqa with the governments of Syria and Iraq declaring victory over the group in November.
