KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has arrested 15 people, mostly foreigners from neighboring Indonesia, on suspicion of having links with the Daesh militant group, police said on Thursday.
Malaysia has been on high alert since January 2016, when gunmen allied with Daesh carried out a series of attacks in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
The suspects were arrested in several raids across the country between July and September, Malaysia’s police counter-terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said in a statement.
The first case involved a 25-year-old Indonesian palm plantation worker in the state of Sabah in Borneo, who police believe had acted as a facilitator for a family of five that carried out a suicide attack on a church in Jolo, in the southern Philippines in December 2018.
Ayob said the suspect had also allegedly channeled funds to the Maute group, which seized control of the lakeside town of Marawi in the Philippines for five months in 2017, a conflict that killed over 1,100 people.
Police said they also arrested 13 other Indonesians and a Malaysian in separate raids on suspicion of carrying out activities in support of Daesh, which included promoting the group’s ideology and recruiting new members on social media, with the aim of launching attacks in their two countries.
Police arrested one Indian national separately for being a member of the Sikhs For Justice group that has been outlawed in India. The suspect has since been deported, Ayob said.
Malaysia has arrested hundreds of people in the past few years for suspected militant links.
Malaysian police arrest 15 over links to Daesh
Malaysian police arrest 15 over links to Daesh
- Malaysia has been on high alert since January 2016, when gunmen allied with Daesh carried out a series of attacks in Jakarta
- The suspects were arrested in several raids across the country between July and September
France’s Macron laughs off ‘harmless’ eye condition as he addresses troops
French President Emmanuel Macron joked about a “completely harmless” eye condition on Thursday during a New Year address to France’s armed forces.
“Please pardon the unsightly appearance of my eye,” Macron said at the beginning of his speech. “It is, of course, something completely harmless.”
Macron appeared with a puffy, red eye during his speech at the military base in Istres, in southern France. He earlier wore sunglasses during an outdoor troop inspection.
“Simply see an unintentional reference to the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ ... For those who catch the reference, it is a sign of determination,” he joked, in an apparent reference to the name of the hit theme song by American rock band Survivor from the 1982 Rocky III movie starring Sylvester Stallone.
Macron’s speech addressed key challenges for the military in 2026, from France’s accelerated rearmament and continued support for Ukraine, to the decision to send troops to Greenland in a show of support for Denmark.
