Islamic State Expands to Malaysia, Infiltrates Military

The Washington Free Beacon

20 May 2015

The Islamic State terror group is expanding operations in Southeast Asia where in Malaysia more than 100 Islamists, including some linked to the military, have been arrested in recent weeks, according to a State Department security report.

“Malaysian authorities have now arrested more than 100 individuals linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including over 30 suspects in March and April alone,” says a May 19 report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a government group that promotes partnership between the State Department and the private sector. The Islamic State terrorist organization is known by three acronyms: IS, ISIS, and ISIL.

The seven-page internal report produced for U.S. corporations abroad is the latest indication that the Obama administration’s strategy against Islamic State is failing. The president has limited U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq to airstrikes and training for local forces that appear to be struggling in efforts to counter IS forces.

… Rohan Gunaratna, a counterterrorism expert at Singapore’s International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said during a conference in March that the Islamic State is stepping up operations in the region. So far, 22 terrorist groups in Southeast Asia have joined IS and are supporting the group, mainly in online.

“As ISIS loses territory, it will become more insurgent, hit-and-run, and terrorist in nature, and its influence will spread overseas,” he told the Straits Times newspaper.

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