KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia police are tracking down four Islamic State (IS)-linked terrorists involved in a plot to kidnap and murder police officers, as well as attack non-Muslim places of worship.

Authorities said in a press release on Monday (Apr 16) that six other members of the IS cell were arrested by the Johor counter-terrorism unit between Feb 27 and Mar 1, but that four were still on the run and "dangerous".

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Two of the suspects were identified as Muhamad Faizal Muhamad Hanafi, 29, and his father Muhamad Hanafi Yah, 51, both of whom are Malaysians from Kelantan.

A third Malaysian is Nor Farkhan Mohd Isa, 31, whose address was indicated as Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Skudai in Johor.

The fourth suspect, a 37-year-old Thai, is Awae Wae-eya.

Police said anyone with information about the suspects should contact the authorities. They can also go directly to police headquarters in Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur or any police station closest to them.

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Anyone found to have hidden information about, helped or protected the suspects may be jailed seven to 30 years, said Malaysian police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun. </s> Malaysian police are hunting for four militants suspected of planning attacks on non-Muslim places of worship, as well as to kidnap and kill police officers.

Police chief Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement yesterday that six members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) cell were arrested between Feb 27 and March 1. But four others were still on the run.

Police said the men were "dangerous" and "capable of launching attacks that could pose a threat to national security".

Two of the suspects were named as Muhamad Faizal Muhamad Hanafi and Muhamad Hanafi Yah, both from Kelantan.

A third is Nor Farkhan Mohd Isa, from Skudai, Johor. The fourth is Awae Wae-Eya, a Thai national living in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand.

"We have been monitoring the cells for the last few months. We are asking the public to share with us if they have any information on the whereabouts of these four suspects. They should approach the police if they know anything," Special Branch's Counter Terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay told The Straits Times.

Intelligence sources believe Awae is the group's mastermind, based on interrogation of the six men arrested, and that he is trying to establish an ISIS cell in southern Thailand.

The arrests of the other members of the terror cell, which included two men working as janitors in Singapore, were revealed on March 24.

The plot was uncovered after Malaysian counter-terrorism police, aided by their Singaporean counterparts, detained the terrorists in several swoops.

The order to kidnap and kill policemen was the first of its kind, according to a source.

The six men nabbed included a 37-year-old technician who was initially thought to be the masterminded of plans to attack places of worship in Johor Baru.

Also picked up during the raids was a 30-year old security guard, who was tasked with acquiring firearms and scouting for non-Muslim houses of worship to target.

Another suspect, a 25-year-old waiter, had been ordered to kidnap and kill policemen.

Two others, aged 23 and 22, were arrested on March 1 and worked as janitors in Singapore. One of them acted as the intermediary to buy firearms. The other was picked up by police.

A member of the Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines was also arrested during the police crackdown, in Sabah, on March 15.

Malaysia has arrested nearly 400 people since 2013 for suspected links to terrorism. </s> JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamic militant to nine years in prison on Monday for masterminding a double suicide bombing last year that targeted police at a bus terminal in Jakarta.

Kiki Muhammad Iqbal, 38, was among six suspected militants who were arrested days after the attack, in which two bombers blew themselves up, killing three policemen and themselves. The attack also wounded 12 people, both police and civilians.

The suspects were believed to be members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of about two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that formed in 2015 and pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The network, which the United States has designated a terrorist grouping, has been implicated in a number of attacks in Indonesia over the past year.

A panel of three judges at North Jakarta District Court ruled that Iqbal had organized and incited others to launch the suicide attacks through his jihadist sermons at a mosque in Bandung, the capital of West Java province. The bombers and other suspects attended the mosque.

"The defendant has legally and convincingly been proven guilty of organizing and inciting others to commit acts of terrorism," said presiding Judge Purwanto, who uses one name.

The May 24 attack last year was the deadliest in Jakarta since January 2016, when a suicide and gun strike in the central business district killed four civilians and four assailants.

In a separate trial in the same court, a panel of three judges sentenced another militant, Muslih Afifi Afandi, to seven years in jail for harboring other suspects and hiding information about the attacks from authorities.

Officials in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, have carried out a sustained crackdown on militants since the 2002 bombings by al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that killed 202 people in Bali. In recent years the country has faced a new threat as the rise of the Islamic State group in the Middle East has breathed new life into local militant networks. </s> Malaysian prosecutors will charge two women — Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong from Vietnam — with murder over their alleged involvement in the killing of the estranged half-brother of North Korea's leader, the Southeast Asian country's attorney general said on Tuesday.

Kim Jong-nam, who had criticized the regime of his family and his half-brother Kim Jong-un, was killed in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month after the two women allegedly smeared VX nerve agent, a chemical described by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction, across his face.

Attorney general Mohamed Apandi Ali said the women will be formally charged on Wednesday under section 302 of the penal code, which carries the death penalty.

"I can confirm that," he told Reuters in a text message.

South Korean officials believe the murder was carried out by North Korean agents, and Malaysia has identified eight North Koreans suspected of involvement in the killing.

While Malaysian police arrested the women in the days after the attack, they are are also holding one North Korean man and have identified seven other North Koreans wanted in connection with the sensational case.

Ali said the North Korean in custody will not be charged yet. His remand period ends on Friday.

The security camera footage, which has been released in the media, showed two women assaulting Kim in the departure hall of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and the victim stumbling into a medical clinic. He died within 20 minutes of the assault.

Both women have told diplomats from their countries that they had been paid to take part in what they believed was a prank for a reality TV show.

Ri Tong Il, North Korea's former deputy ambassador to the United Nations, has repeated requests that Malaysia hand over the victim's body to the embassy and release the North Korean in custody.

He said he was in Malaysia for "the development of friendly relations between [North Korea] and the Malaysian government", media reported. </s> Turkish police have arrested around 400 suspected members of Islamic State.

The suspects were arrested in a series of raids across the country.

About 150 of them were detained near the border with Syria, and 60 in the capital Ankara.

Turkish news agencies are reporting a number of those arrested are suspected of planning attacks. </s> CAIRO — Egypt’s chief prosecutor has referred 555 terror suspects to a military court on charges of joining a local affiliate of the Islamic State group.

Monday’s statement by the prosecutor says the suspects formed dozens of small militant cells and carried out 63 attacks against army and police forces in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.

It says only 216 of the 555 suspects are in custody.

Egypt has been battling Islamic militants for years, but the insurgency gathered steam and grew deadlier after the 2013 ouster by the military of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president whose year in office proved divisive.

In February, authorities launched a wide-scale operation in Sinai, the Nile Delta and the Western Desert to target “terrorist and criminal elements and organizations.” </s> MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australian police have charged three men with committing terrorist acts on suspicion of starting fires at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Melbourne last year, inspired by Islamic State and intending to divide the Muslim community.

 Two of the men are already in custody and awaiting trial on suspicion of plotting bomb attacks in Australia's second largest city last year, while a third – a 29-year-old Melbourne man – was arrested late on Saturday.

 All three face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment over the arson attack at the Imam Ali Islamic Centre in December 2016.

 Australian Federal Police's counter terrorism national manager said that attacking a place of worship had no place in society.

 “It is clear that these arson attacks were designed to intimidate and influence those that attend this mosque and the wider Islamic community," Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said on Sunday.

 Australia, a staunch U.S. ally that has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, has been on heightened alert since 2014 for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East, or their supporters.

 While there have been several "lone wolf" attacks, officials say 13 significant plots have been foiled in that time.

 Police say the three men were adherents of militant Sunni Muslim ideology. 

 Police said the arrest of the man on Saturday came after extensive investigations into fires at the Melbourne mosque – but said it did not relate to any direct threat to the community.

 The other two men facing charges are in custody and awaiting trial for allegedly planning militant attacks around Christmas Day 2016 in Melbourne.

 The two, a 25-year-old and a 27-year-old, will also be charged with terrorist offences for causing a previous fire at the Imam Ali Islamic Centre in November 2016.

 The man arrested on Saturday will appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Sunday, while the other two will appear in court on Monday. 

 This month, two men were charged with terror-related offences after authorities disrupted what they described as an Islamic State-inspired plot to bomb an Etihad Airways flight.

 Another man arrested in relation to the foiled plot was charged with weapons offences and released on bail. A fourth man was released without charge.

 A gunman in a 2014 Sydney cafe siege boasted about links with Islamic State militants, although no direct ties with the group were established. The gunman and two other people were killed in the siege.

 

 (Reporting by Joseph Hinchliffe; Editing by Robert Birsel) </s> Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police forces arrested six Islamic State militants in the group’s former bastion, Mosul, a police official was quoted saying on Thursday.

Spokesperson of the Interior Ministry, Saad Maan, said in a statement that the six were arrested in al-Wahda neighborhood in eastern Mosul after a raid of searches, adding that those arrested had arrest warrants issued for them based on the anti-terrorism law.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State militants in December 2017, ending a three-year military campaign against the group to retake areas they had occupied to proclaim a self-styled “caliphate”.

But even after Iraq declared that the militants lost their territorial influence, the group seems to continue to represent a security concern, launching several attacks against security and civilians and causing several death. </s> Riyadh, May 1 - Saudi Interior Ministry said on Sunday that it has arrested 46 Islamic State militants suspected to be behind a deadly suicide bombing attack on the Prophet's Mosque in the holy city of Medina in the summer of 2016, Al Arabiya local news reported. The suspects, 32 Saudis and 14 foreigners of Pakistani, Yemeni, Afghan, Egyptian, Jordanian and Sudanese nationalities, were detained in Jeddah, Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman of the Ministry as saying.

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Malaysia announces the arrest of six alleged Islamic State members accused of plotting to abduct and murder police and assault places of worship. Authorities appeal for information on four more suspects.