Malaysian Minister Warns IS May Relocate Base To Southeast Asia Amid Al-Baghdadi's Death

Malaysian Minister Warns IS May Relocate Base to Southeast Asia Amid al-Baghdadi's Death

Malaysian Minister of Home Affairs Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday warned the public about the threat of the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia) relocating its base to Southeast Asia following the killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria last month

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2019) Malaysian Minister of Home Affairs Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday warned the public about the threat of the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia) relocating its base to Southeast Asia following the killing of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria last month.

"We believe that al-Baghdadi's death will open up another chapter in IS's terror operation. After losing much of its territory in Syria and Iraq, the IS is also looking for a new base," the minister said at the 13th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime, as quoted by the Malaysian Bernama news agency.

According to Yassin, another growing source of threat is online radicalization, lone-wolf insurgents and terrorists who return home to Malaysia.

"For the past six years, Royal Malaysia Police has successfully foiled 25 attempts by the IS to carry out attacks in Malaysia and arrested 512 suspects involved in IS-linked activities," he added.

On October 27, the United States announced that al-Baghdadi had been killed in Syria during a special operation by US troops. US President Donald Trump thanked Russia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the Syrian Kurds for their assistance in the operation. The Russian Defense Ministry, in the meantime, said that there was no reliable data to confirm that the terrorist had indeed been killed. Since 2014, there have been at least six instances in which different states and non-state actors claimed to have killed al-Baghdadi.