AS Indonesian security forces cracked down on suspected jihadists over the weekend, Australia warned of a possible terror attack in Kuala Lumpur, fueling fears of a revival of jihadism across Southeast Asia.
Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan told The Australian Southeast Asian communities were grappling with Islamic State-style radicalization, attack planning, and a tide of Muslims traveling to Syria to fight for the terror group.
“It’s been clear for some time we’ve been seeing a deteriorating security picture in the region,” Keenan said. “[Our neighbours] are subject to the same threats that we’ve seen in Australia. IS has been recruiting their citizens to go to fight in the war zone and it’s also been encouraging their citizens to carry out attacks at home.’’
Australian officials now regard Southeast Asia as the emerging battleground with Islamic State and issued on Monday an advisory to their nationals in Malaysia to be wary of terror attacks, like that in Jakarta last month.
“Terrorists may be planning attacks in and around Kuala Lumpur,” Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in its latest advice issued late Sunday.
“Attacks could be indiscriminate and may target Western interests or locations frequented by Westerners. You should be particularly vigilant at this time.”
The advisory, which did not raise the overall threat level for the country from “exercise normal safety precautions”, said there was “an ongoing threat of terrorism in Malaysia, including Kuala Lumpur and other major cities”.
It noted that Malaysian authorities had arrested a number of people allegedly involved in planning attacks, including, it said, against entertainment venues in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian police said late last month they had arrested seven alleged Islamic State militants plotting violence, including one who had allegedly been in contact with Indonesian extremist Bahrun Naim.
Naim is one of three high-profile Indonesians fighting for IS in Syria. Indonesian police say he played a central role in motivating groups to launch attacks in that country.
Over the weekend, Indonesian police arrested dozens of suspected extremists on Java island, most of whom were allegedly carrying out military-style training on a remote mountain.
Around 30 were reportedly detained late Friday on Mount Sumbing as they took part in the training, while another five were arrested the same day in raids in the city of Malang.
It was not clear whether they were linked to the gun and suicide attacks in Jakarta last month which left four civilians and four assailants dead, and were claimed by the Islamic State group.
A member of Indonesia’s elite anti-terror police, speaking anonymously, confirmed there had been a “raid on an arms training session” taking place on a mountain.
Local media reported that the group of around 30 were from Islamic extremist group Jamaah Ansharus Syariah and the training was on the slopes of Sumbing, in Central Java province.
The arrests came after local villagers reported hearing gunfire, MetroTV reported, citing provincial police spokesman Liliek Darmanto.
Air guns, knives, religious books and flags were seized at a house where some of the participants had stayed en route to the mountain, the report said.
In the separate raid in Malang, five alleged Islamic radicals were seized by police backed by officers from the elite anti-terror squad, said local police chief Yudho Nugroho.
“The five are still being held,” he said, adding that police had been “monitoring them for a while”.
The attacks in the capital centred around a Starbucks outlet and were the country’s worst terror incident in seven years, prompting police to launch a nationwide crackdown.
Authorities said last week that 33 people from radical Islamic groups who were plotting attacks against the airport and other targets in the near future had been arrested, with around half directly linked to the Jakarta attacks.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, but a subsequent crackdown weakened the most dangerous extremist networks.