Iraq’s push to recapture terror group’s stronghold of Mosul may drive thousands of miliants here
KUALA LUMPUR — The launch of an operation by Iraqi forces on Monday (Oct 17) to wrestle back the Islamic State’s (IS) stronghold of Mosul could lead to an exodus of its fighters to the region, said Malaysia’s Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, as he called on countries in South-east Asia to step up their guard against the threat.
“It has not started yet because the offensive only started today...(but) intelligence have informed me that the numbers are not going to be small. Either they go back to their countries of origin or they find safe havens in certain regions. So we have to be very proactive,” he told reporters.
“I have instructed Mindef (Ministry of Defence) and the army to keep an eye on the development in Iraq and Syria because we are worried that they might come here and it won’t be a small number. It will be thousands of them,” he said.
“This is why it’s important for us to have a trilateral relationship with Indonesia and the Philippines. We need to ensure we can get as many intel as possible to strengthen and to protect our region,” Mr Hishammuddin added.
Nations around the region including Malaysia has been on high alert for attacks from IS-linked militants, with Malaysia and Indonesia being identified by the terrorists as a high-priority target.
Indonesia saw its first militant attack in several years in January, in which four people were killed.
The gun-and-bomb assault in the heart of the capital Jakarta was claimed by IS.
Last month, Indonesia uncovered a plot by a group of terrorists based in Batam planning a rocket attack on Singapore’s Marina Bay.
In Malaysia, IS supporters managed to stage a grenade attack on a nightclub in Selangor on June 28, which injured eight people.That was the first attack by IS in Malaysia, which marked a breakthrough by the terror group after numerous plots were previously thwarted by the authorities.
To date, the authorities have foiled 13 terror attacks, with seven of these being ordered from Syria. They also believe more than 110 Malaysians have left for Syria since 2013 to join IS and 21 were confirmed to have been killed there.
Last week, Malaysian police announced that it has detained 16 men for suspected militant links after a two-week operation across the country, including 14 with alleged links to IS.
In the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf group based in the southern Philippines, which has acted as a hostage-for-ransom gang for more than two decades, has pledged its allegiance to IS. Late last month, the Maute militant group that supports IS staged a daring jailbreak in the southern Philippines, freeing 23 detainees.
Kurdish forces on Monday began advancing on a string of villages east of Mosul, the start of a long-awaited campaign to reclaim Iraq’s second-largest city from the IS, which seized it more than two years ago, officials said.
About 4,000 Kurdish pesh merga troops are involved in the operation to retake 10 villages, the opening phase of a battle that could take weeks or months and could involve nearly 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops, with American warplanes providing air support. Iraqi counterterrorism forces, which work closely with American Special Operations commandos in Iraq, are also expected to join the Kurdish forces in the coming days.
The push to retake Mosul if successful, will be one of the biggest setback to the IS as it was in the city’s Great Mosque that IS leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi declared a caliphate, or Islamic state, that spanned the borders of Iraq and Syria.
http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/msia-warns-south-east-asia-be-alert-offensive-begins-controlled-mosul
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