Three IS militants from RI killed in Syria

The Jakarta Post, Wednesday October 22 2014,


Three Indonesians were among 20 Islamic State (IS) militants who were reportedly killed last week in an attack launched by Syrian Kurdish fighters in the latter’s efforts to reclaim Syrian-Turkish border areas from the militant group.

The Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), reported on Oct. 16 that it had destroyed a military vehicle, killing the militants inside and seizing large quantities of ammunition.

One of the three slain Indonesian fighters has been identified as Ridwan, a 26-year-old graduate of an Islamic boarding school in the Central Java town of Surakarta.

His driving license and plane tickets, as published on several websites, show that Ridwan spent almost a month in Qatar before flying to Turkey on April 11 and eventually reaching Syria.

Both the National Police and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) claim not to have received any official report about Ridwan’s death or those of his two compatriots.

“I have heard the news but, so far, there has been no report about it,” said BNPT deputy head Agus
Surya Bakti.

Terrorism expert Al Chaidar said that Ridwan and his two friends had been recruited by loyal followers of radical cleric and convicted terrorist Abu Bakar Baasyir, who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State in the Nusakambangan maximum security prison, Central Java, last July.

“Baasyir’s followers helped them to reach Turkey and make contact with Islamic State recruiters,” he said on Monday.

Meanwhile in Surakarta, Ridwan’s family is waiting restlessly for confirmation about Ridwan’s fate.

“No one has come to our house to give us authentic information about that,” Ridwan’s brother, Yusuf Roni, told tribunnews.com on Sunday.

According to the family, after graduating from Syahadah Islamic boarding school in Boyolali, Central Java, Ridwan gave lectures in boarding schools in Purwodadi, Central Java, and Aceh.

Ridwan left his hometown in July to become a teacher in Medan, North Sumatra.

The BNPT estimates that around 100 Indonesians are fighting under the IS banner, as well as for Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda offshoot, in Iraq and Syria. Prior to Ridwan and his two friends, five Indonesian militants are reported to have lost their lives on Middle Eastern battlefields.

According to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), these five Indonesians comprised an al-Nusra fighter, identified as Reza Fardi, and four Islamic State militants: Wildan Mukhollad, Abdul Rauf bin Jahruddin alias Sam, Usama Bedho and a man using the pseudonym, Hanzhalah al-Indunisi.

Of the five, Wildan and Hanzhalah were suicide bombers.

Al Chaidar suggested that many Indonesian militants had returned home with the aim of recruiting more members for the extremist group.

“Around 30 former Islamic State fighters have actively recruited new members and set up ‘humanitarian aid’ initiatives for the group in some regions, including Yogyakarta and Surabaya in East Java,” he said.

Responding to the threat, the BNPT is preparing to dispatch a team to the Middle East to coordinate concerted measures against IS and to collect data on Indonesian fighters in the region.

“The team will consist of BNPT officers and the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism squad. The schedule for their visit has not yet been determined. Aside from that, next week Iraqi clerics are due to visit Indonesia to discuss terrorism-related issues with us,” Agus said.



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