ISIS Members From Indonesia And Malaysia Shape Military Unit

     Militants from Indonesia and Malaysia that are fighting in Syria has formed a new military unit to fighters ISIS Malay language. Analysts also worried that the new development that can expand their reach in Southeast Asia.

The unit was called Katibah Nusantara Lids Daulah Islamiyya, or the Malay Archipelago Unit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) based in Jakarta in a report estimating that the new unit have at least 22 members. They gathered in the city of Al-Shadadi, in the province of Hasaka, Syria, at the beginning of last month, IPAC said, as quoted by The Straits Times Online, Friday (09/26/2014).

Militants from Indonesia, Bahrum shah, who appeared in a video recruitment ISIS recently, and Rosikien Nur mem- posting a photo of a meeting on Facebook. However, the page has since been closed. So says IPAC. Analysts said the men appeared to have been brought together for reasons of language and social media. Many militants Indonesia difficulty associating the various units of multinational ISIS as Arabic and their English is limited.

"This group was formed with the aim to recruit and facilitate people who want to go to Syria to defend the Islamic Caliphate, and to launch a counterattack against the oppressive government supporters of the caliph," said Robi Sugara of Barometer Institute told The Straits Times. Officials said there are more than 50 Indonesian citizens who are fighting in Syria. Number of Malaysians who fought there more or less the same.

Ansyaad Mbai, head of the National Agency for Anti-Terrorism Penanggulan Indonesia on Thursday, saying that he can not comment on the new unit. "However, our main concern remains on what the people who fought over there will do when they come back," he told The Straits Times.

When asked if they are a threat similar to that raised members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore back after training in Afghanistan in the 1990s, he said, "In essence, they shared the conviction and the same goal. "

IPAC leadership of Sidney Jones said, unlike the Al-Ghuraba cell of JI Southeast Asia in the 1990s, based in Karachi, Pakistan, and occasionally traveled to Afghanistan to do the exercises, fighters ISIS have direct combat experience. IPAC said, it is clear from the account up that support ISIS in Indonesia and Malaysia mutual friends.

The agency added that the members Katibah "could be a precursor for a fighting force that will reach Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines". However, so far, there is no indication that there is a Filipino fighters in the unit.