Jakarta bloodshed spotlights rise of IS affiliate
JAKARTA - The deadly Paris-style attack in Jakarta has thrown a spotlight on a shadowy Southeast Asian faction of the Islamic State group and offers new evidence of the spread of IS franchises.
Under growing pressure in Iraq and Syria from the US-led bombing campaign, the extremist group is spreading its tentacles, metastasising into new regions.
The IS group already has affiliates in Libya and Nigeria, and has targeted a host of other countries like Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, using its signature brutality to lure disaffected fighters from other jihadists like the Taliban.
Now, with its claim of responsibility for Thursday's suicide bomb and gun attacks in Jakarta -- which left five attackers and two other people dead -- the brutal grouping appears to be getting a foothold in Southeast Asia.
"IS is changing strategy," said Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian, the former head of Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit.
"They are establishing branches of IS across the world -- in France, Europe, Africa, Turkey as well as Southeast Asia," he told reporters this week.
Indonesian police have pointed the finger at Katibah Nusantara, a militant unit of Malay-speaking IS jihadists fighting in Syria.
While there has as yet been no direct Katibah Nusantara claim, the group has loomed ever larger on the radar of IS-linked groups.
Its extended name translates roughly as "Malay Archipelago Unit for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."
Its goal: a Southeast Asian outpost for its global caliphate.
The faction's fighters, primarily from Indonesia and Malaysia and who coalesced along shared lines of language and culture, rose to prominence in 2015 after distinguishing themselves on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, helping to capture territory.
Those victories were a Southeast Asian publicity coup for IS, which trumpeted them in glowing terms on social media in the Malay language, publicity aimed squarely at potential jihadists across the region.
Jakarta bloodshed spotlights rise of IS affiliate JAKARTA - The deadly Paris-style attack in Jakarta has thrown a spotlight on a shadowy Southeast Asian faction of the Islamic State group and offers new evidence of the spread of IS franchises.Under growing pressure in Iraq and Syria from the US-led bombing campaign, the extremist group is spreading its tentacles, metastasising into new regions.The IS group already has affiliates in Libya and Nigeria, and has targeted a host of other countries like Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, using its signature brutality to lure disaffected fighters from other jihadists like the Taliban.Now, with its claim of responsibility for Thursday's suicide bomb and gun attacks in Jakarta -- which left five attackers and two other people dead -- the brutal grouping appears to be getting a foothold in Southeast Asia."IS is changing strategy," said Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian, the former head of Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit."They are establishing branches of IS across the world -- in France, Europe, Africa, Turkey as well as Southeast Asia," he told reporters this week. Indonesian police have pointed the finger at Katibah Nusantara, a militant unit of Malay-speaking IS jihadists fighting in Syria.While there has as yet been no direct Katibah Nusantara claim, the group has loomed ever larger on the radar of IS-linked groups.Its extended name translates roughly as "Malay Archipelago Unit for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria."Its goal: a Southeast Asian outpost for its global caliphate.The faction's fighters, primarily from Indonesia and Malaysia and who coalesced along shared lines of language and culture, rose to prominence in 2015 after distinguishing themselves on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, helping to capture territory.Those victories were a Southeast Asian publicity coup for IS, which trumpeted them in glowing terms on social media in the Malay language, publicity aimed squarely at potential jihadists across the region.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..