Football Indonesian Militants In Marawi Enthralling ISIS Loyalists

News Portals: Tuesday, 13, 2017 - 09:22 pm Philippine troops conduct checks on the main line in the city of Marawi, Saturday (10/06/2017). [Photo / REUTERS / Romeo Ranoco / Join To Marawi]

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The militants of Indonesian terror groups among Maute groups in Marawi City are considered to be the lureists of the Islamic State or ISIS loyalists to make the southern Philippines their ideal base. There are about 40 Indonesian militants who joined the war in Marawi.

According to analysts, dozens of militants were sent by the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah group (JAD). The group and Maute group are ambitious to create the ISIS state in the southern Philippines after groups in the Middle East lost many areas.

"For Indonesian militants, and in the context of Southeast Asia, the southern Philippines is the most ideal for that purpose," said Taufik Andrie, Executive Director of the Institute for International Peace Building, a think tank group .

On Sunday, the Philippine military mourns in honor of its 13 marines who were killed in fighting with the Maute group on Friday. This is one of the biggest losses for Manila troops who try to recapture Marawi from Maute militants.

When the battle in Marawi enters the third week, regional security agencies have uncovered intelligence data that foreign militants such as from Indonesia, Malaysia, Chechnya, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are in the Maute group.

The size of the power of the Maute group in Marawi can not be clearly defined. However, local authorities suspect there are hundreds to thousands of militants who occupied the city.

Last week, 28 Malaysians were reported to have joined the conflict in Marawi. Meanwhile, the head of the Indonesian National Agency for Combating Terrorism (Komnen Penaggulangan Terorisme / BNPT) Kom Senardi Suhardi Alius on Thursday said 40 Indonesians who fought in Marawi were JAD followers.

The group was led by Aman Abdurrahman, an imprisoned ideologue. He is considered a figure who ordered his followers to carry out suicide bomb attacks in Jakarta in January last year. He is also thought to be linked to a suicide bomb attack in Kampung Melayu, East Jakarta, May 23, 2017, which killed three policemen. JAD has been included in the US counter-terrorism watchlist because of its connection with ISIS.

Experts say the name of the Maute group was formed based on the names of its founders, Moro Abdullah and Omarkhayam Maute.

Joseph Franco, a researcher at the Center of Excellence for National Security based in Singapore, said the brothers had vowed to ISIS two years ago.

According to Franco, the ongoing guerrilla war on the island of Mindanao also attracted the attention of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon who later joined the Maute group.

The Australian newspaper quoted Iqbal Hussaini, an Indonesian militant trained in a militant camp in Mindanao some years ago, saying that the siege of Marawi has rekindled the spirit of the "jihadists" of Indonesia.Iqbal who was jailed for smuggling weapons from the southern Philippines to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) group in Indonesia, said many of his compatriots wanted to join the Maute group.

"Many are looking for (road) 'jihad' next," he said. "The possibility of Marawi will be the basis of ISIS is very, very high," he said, quoted by The Straits Times, Monday (06/12/2017).