ISIS' Reach Extends to Southeast Asia

ISIS’ Reach Extends to Southeast Asia

MARAWI CITY, PHILIPPINES – MAY 26: A soldier carrying a captured ISIS flag while clearing a city street of militants on May 26, 2017 in Marawi city, southern Philippines. Filipino officials announced on Friday that foreign fighters were among the Islamist militants killed in Marawi city during gun battles between ISIS-linked militants and security troops this week. President Rodrigo Duterte had declared 60 days of martial law in Mindanao on Tuesday after local terrorist groups Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf rampaged through the southern city and said that martial law could be extended across the Philippines to enforce order, allowing the detention of people without charge. Based on reports, at least 31 ISIS-linked militants and 13 government troopers have been killed so far while thousands of residents continue to flee from Malawi city. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)

Posted: August 20th, 2017

Just days before Indonesia’s Independence Day celebration, Indonesian police foiled a chemical bomb attack on Tuesday that targeted the presidential palace in Jakarta. They arrested five suspects belonging to Jemaah Ansharut Daulah, an Indonesian Islamist terror organization with ties to ISIS that is responsible for several recent attacks against Indonesian police.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the fight between government forces and militants from the ISIS-linked Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups in the city of Marawi has claimed more than 700 lives and has entered its third month. Authorities believe that militants came from as far as Saudi Arabia and Chechnya to join the ISIS affiliate, though a majority of the foreign fighters hail from Indonesia and Malaysia.

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