Indonesia Checking Reports Militant Killed in Syria

National Police spokesman Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar.

 
Jakarta, 16 Jumadil Akhir 1438/15 March 2017 (MINA) – Authorities in Indonesia were on Wednesday checking reports that an Indonesian militant fighting alongside the Islamic State group had died in a suicide bombing.

Bahrumsyah, whose nom de guerre was Abu Muhammad al-Indonesi, died Monday after the explosive-laden car he was driving towards Syrian government troops in Palmyra blew up prematurely, The Straits Times reported.

“We are awaiting confirmation,” national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.

“There’s information to that effect and we are veryfying,” he said.

In 2014 Bahrumsyah appeared in an Islamic State recruitment video posted on YouTube urging militants in Indonesia to join the group.

He had gained notoriety in 2014 after appearing in a recruitment video, calling for militants in his native Indonesia, Malaysia and others in the region to join ISIS.

This came after the Indonesian was reportedly hand-picked by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to lead the battalion of foreign fighters from South-east Asia.

The United States had put him on its terrorists watchlist due to his links with ISIS in January – the same month rumours surfaced in Syria that he had been killed in combat.

His third wife Nia Kurniawati, was among 17 Indonesians deported from Turkey in January after trying to enter Syria, said Indonesian police last month.

Nia has since been placed in a deradicalisation program in a shelter located in East Jakarta. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)