15 Isis suspects arrested in Malaysia had received orders to attack, say police

Malaysian police have detained 15 more suspected members of Islamic State, who police say planned to launch attacks and tried to obtain chemicals to make bombs. 

National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement late on Thursday the suspects were aged between 22 and 49 and included four women, a police official, an airplane technician, a mosque cleric and a student.

Khalid said they were detained over three days from Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur and six other states. He said they had allegedly received orders to launch attacks in the country from a Malaysian man who had joined Isis in Syria.

The arrests followed Tuesday’s bombings by Islamist militants in Brussels that killed at least 31 people and injured 300 others.

The group also arranged for two foreign terror suspects to sneak out of Malaysiainto a south-east Asian country, he said, without giving details. They were also involved in raising and channeling funds to a militant group in the southern Philippines, and in recruiting new members, Khalid said.

The four women were planning to go to Syria to join Isis, he said.

Malaysia has raised its security alert level following bombings in Jakarta on 14 January in neighbouring Indonesia. On 15 January, police said they had detained a man who was hours away from carrying out a suicide attack in Kuala Lumpur.

More than 160 people suspected of having ties to Isis have been detained in Malaysia in the past two years, including some accused of plotting attacks in Kuala Lumpur

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/25/15-isis-suspects-arrested-in-malaysia-had-received-orders-to-attack-say-police