TODAY
09 December 2016
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- A Close-up Look at the Commander of Southeast Asian Jihadists
A Close-up Look at the Commander of Southeast Asian Jihadists
Indonesia militant Bahrumsyah has emerged as a key jihadi leader among Islamic State (IS) supporters in the region, with the demise of several operational commanders of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyyah (JI) (such as Azahari Husin and Noordin Top), and the capture and incarceration of several others like Hambali, the West Java jihadi who masterminded several JI attacks in Indonesia, including the first Bali bombings.
Bahrumsyah, however, remained under the radar of the security apparatus until he made his appearance in Syria in 2014 as the key commander of the Malay-speaking South-east Asian jihadists affiliated with IS. Bahrumsyah was born in Bogor, West Java, in 1984. He is believed to have spent time in Pamulang, Central Java, as part of his jihadi training. His nom de guerre — Abu Muhammad al-Indonesiy, was a name taken from his son.
Bahrumsyah has three wives and four children. One of his wives is the widow of a jihadist shot dead by Densus 88, the counter-terrorism Special Detachment of the Indonesian Police Force. Bahrumsyah studied at the Universitas Islam Negri Syarif Hidayatullah (State Islamic University) in Ciputat, South Jakarta, in 2004.
… Jasminder Singh is a senior analyst with the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR), a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. This piece first appeared in the Counter Terrorist Trends and Analysis journal published by ICPVTR.
ICPVTR / Online / Print
Last updated on 09/12/2016
