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Tag: Syria

  • Australian Mother Abandons Children To Join ISIS In Syria

    Australian Mother Abandons Children To Join ISIS In Syria

    Jasmina Milovanov left her two children with a babysitter earlier this month in Sydney, Australia, saying she was on her way to pick up a new car. She never came back.

    The 26-year-old single mother is now believed to be in Syria and to have joined the Islamic State militant group, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

    Milovanov’s ex-husband said that he received a text message from her on May 3 while he was in Turkey, telling him to return home to Australia and that she was in Syria, reported The Daily Telegraph. The mother is also believed to have written a now-deleted post on Facebook saying that she was in “Sham,” using an Arabic term for Syria.

    Milovanov’s mother told Australia’s Network 10 television station that her daughter hadn’t mentioned anything about going to Syria, saying, “I even saw her the week before and she was alright. Probably she is brainwashed. She is so young and naive.”

    Milovanov was also friends on Facebook with Zehra Duman, a woman known in Australia to be a recruiter who finds brides for IS extremists,Agence France Presse reported.

    Milovanov’s children are ages 5 and 7. She converted to Islam in her late teens,according to The Daily Telegraph.

    Australia’s counterterrorism minister, Michael Keenan, said Tuesday that authorities are currently monitoring the reports of Milovanov’s recruitment and flight.

    Foreign Minister Julie Bishop commented on Milovanov’s case in Parliament on Tuesday, saying she was “deeply pessimistic about the fate of this apparently troubled young woman.”

    The disappearance of Milovanov comes as Australia is planning to pass a law that would strip citizenship from people suspected of terrorist activities, even if they are not convicted of any crime. The proposed law would only apply to those who possess dual nationality, so as not to leave anyone completely stateless.

    Australia has between 100 to 250 citizens fighting for militant groups in Syria and Iraq, according to a January report from The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence.

     

    Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  • Security Guard Jailed For Making Facebook Posts Inciting Religious Violence

    Security Guard Jailed For Making Facebook Posts Inciting Religious Violence

    A 28-year-old security guard has been jailed for three months after making Facebook posts inciting readers to religious violence.

    Muhammad Shamin Mohamed Sidek made the two posts on Nov 29 last year after reading a news report of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a dialogue on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

    Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wen Hsien said that Shamin’s posts used “graphic and evocative language” which “further encourages violence along… religious fault lines”.

    She added that the reach of the accused’s words had been magnified by the accessibility of his Facebook platform.

    In mitigation, Shamin said he had deactivated his Facebook account the same day after leaving police custody, and that the posts had been those of  “a simple layman… venting in frustration”.

    District Judge Shawn Ho called the accused’s posts a “grim reminder of how offenders can use technology to stoke the flames of violence… particularly given the current international, regional and domestic security climate”.

    “It is infinitely better to prevent a breakdown in law, order and safety than to deal with an aftermath when untold and often irreparable damage has been done,” he said.

    Shamin was also convicted of possessing contraband cigarettes, which were discovered during a police raid on his Tampines flat.

    He admitted purchasing the 40 packs of Marlboro cigarettes knowing that their duties had not been paid. For this, he received a fine of $3,200, or 16 days’ jail if he defaults.

    For making a document or electronic record containing an incitement to violence, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined or both.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • IS Posts Video Of Little Children From Southeast Asia Undergoing Military Training

    IS Posts Video Of Little Children From Southeast Asia Undergoing Military Training

    In its latest effort to reach out to supporters in South-east Asia, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has posted photos and a video of Malay-speaking children training with weapons.

    The footage depicts a group of at least 20 boys studying, praying, eating and undergoing defence and weapons lessons in territory held by the terrorist group.

    It comes amid warnings by experts that ISIS is beefing up its external operations wing and courting further support in the region.

    “There has been a surge in Indonesian- and Malay-language material posted by ISIS online,” Mr Jasminder Singh, a research analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told The Straits Times.

    “There have been previous videos featuring Arab and Central Asian children, and it is clear they are now reaching out to target supporters in South-east Asia.”

    Titled Education In The Caliphate, the video was posted over the weekend by the Malay- language media division of ISIS, as a teaser for a longer piece to be posted later.

    Also uploaded are “exclusive” photos of students at the Abdullah Azzam academy, which uses Malay as a medium of instruction and was set up for the children of South-east Asian fighters.

    Abdullah Azzam was a radical ideologue who mentored Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

    Analysts say the school indicates that ISIS’ Malay Archipelago Unit, set up last year and called Katibah Nusantara, has grown. The decision to say the school teaches in Bahasa Melayu, rather than Bahasa Indonesia, suggests a defiance of the boundaries of the nation state.

    The video is also the first to show children from this region being trained for active combat. An estimated 500 fighters from the region, including southern Thailand, have joined ISIS.

    “They want to seek financial support, and to attract Indonesians and Malaysians to migrate to the caliphate,” said analyst Robi Sugara of research outfit Barometer Institute.

    The video comes as Turkey said last week it had detained 16 Indonesians trying to cross into Syria, and two weeks after Malaysian police identified two Malaysians in a beheading video.

    This month, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean told Parliament that returning fighters posed a danger to the region, and self-radicalised individuals may also be influenced by ISIS to carry out attacks in their home countries.

    The two-minute video features Indonesian Katibah member Bahrumsyah, who left for Syria last May. Its message is that these children will “finish all oppressors, disbelievers, apostates”, and ends with a child firing a revolver.

    Mr Abdul Halim Kader of Muslim group Taman Bacaan said there is a fear that some young people might be influenced by such videos, and educators had to do more to counter their message.

    Said Mr Singh: “The message they aim to send is, ‘These children will be the next generation of fighters. You can capture us, kill us, we will regenerate, no matter how hard you try.’ ”

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Turkey: Spy From Anti-IS Coalition Who Helped Three British Girls Cross Into Syria Arrested

    Turkey: Spy From Anti-IS Coalition Who Helped Three British Girls Cross Into Syria Arrested

    Turkey said on Thursday it had caught a spy working for a country in the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who had helped three British girls cross into Syria to join the militant group.

    “Do you know who turned out to be the person helping these three girls cross into Syria and join ISIS?” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told broadcaster A Haber in an interview.

    “He was caught. It turned out to be someone who works for the intelligence of a country from the coalition.”

    He did not specify which country the spy was working for but said it was not the European Union or the United States. The coalition also includes countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Australia and Canada.

    Cavusoglu said he shared this information with his British counterpart, who had replied “as usual.”

    Spy in custody

    A Turkish official who declined to be identified told Reuters the spy was now in custody.

    “The person was working for the intelligence agency of a coalition country but is not a citizen of that country. The person was not a Turkish citizen either,” he said.

    The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized large swathes of land last June, including territory close to the Turkish border. The U.S.-led coalition is using mostly air power in an attempt to push the Sunni militant group back.

    British police and the girls’ families have issued appeals for their daughters to return home after they flew to Istanbul from London on Feb. 17. Friends Amira Abase, 15, Shamima Begum, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, are thought to have since entered Syrian territory controlled by Islamic State.

    Thousands of foreigners from more than 80 nations including Britain, other parts of Europe, China and the United States have joined the ranks of Islamic State and other radical groups in Syria and Iraq, many crossing through Turkey.

    Turkey has said it needs more information from foreign intelligence agencies to intercept them, pointing to cases such as the three London schoolgirls who fled Britain.

     

    Source: http://english.alarabiya.net

  • Former Islamic State Commandant Arrested In Kuala Lumpur

    Former Islamic State Commandant Arrested In Kuala Lumpur

    KUALA LUMPUR – A 45-year-old former commandant of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), on the most-wanted list in the Middle East, was detained by the Malaysian Police Counter Terrorism unit in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 31.

    The suspect, who had been part of the terrorist group operating in Syria from May 2012 to May 2014, was deported to his country of origin yesterday (Feb 6) after five days in detention for allegedly using a fake passport.

    Police, who seized a large amount of money from the suspect, have yet to release more details of the operation, saying keeping the identity of the suspect under wraps is vital until the entire operation is completed.

    The arrest was a result of cooperation between Malaysian police and other foreign countries that have vouched to tackle the terror group from widening its influence abroad.

    Intelligence sources said the man from the Middle East who arrived in mid-January was detained at a four-star hotel near Bukit Bintang.

    Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar in a statement today (Feb 7) confirmed the arrest, but did not link the terrorist to any group.

    It is understood that the suspect had travelled to several countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South-east Asia before slipping into Malaysia.

    “The Royal Malaysian Police takes a serious view of the activities of foreign terrorists attempting to use Malaysia as a transit, safe haven and base of operations.

    “The success in the suspect’s arrest is the result of close cooperation between the police and foreign enforcement agencies. This cooperation will continue to eradicate and manage the threat of terrorism, be it regionally or globally,” Mr Khalid said.

    About 59 Malaysians are officially known to have joined ISIS.

    More than 65 have been arrested by police either on their way to Syria and Iraq or on their way back since the start of last year.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com