Advertisement
‘Isis version two’: Malaysia, Indonesia fear return home of fighters jailed in Syria after Trump’s troop withdrawal
- Kurdish rebels have been guarding 12,000 Islamic State prisoners captured during the long battle against the terror network in Syria
- But the US exit has left the Kurds vulnerable, providing hundreds of Southeast Asian jihadists with a chance to flee, regroup and re-energise
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Thousands of kilometres from home, hundreds of battle-hardened Islamic State (Isis) fighters recruited from Malaysia and Indonesia have been locked up in Syrian prisons since the terrorist group’s self-declared caliphate collapsed earlier this year.
Advertisement
The jails are packed with about 12,000 jihadist fighters, with about 2,000 of them thought to be from other countries besides Iraq and Syria. The fate of the fighters, long uncertain, has taken a twist as Turkish forces continue their assault on neighbouring Syria.
Many of the fighters are guarded by Kurdish rebels in northeastern Syria who have been battling Isis as well as government forces during Syria’s eight-year civil war.
The Kurds played a huge role in defeating Isis as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab soldiers backed by the United States, Britain and France.
But in an abrupt decision last week, US President Donald Trump said Washington would withdraw troops from the area, paving the way for Ankara – which views the Kurds as terrorists – to fill the void.
Advertisement
Counterterrorism experts as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin are now warning that the turmoil could see the jihadist captives go free. And this has caused authorities in Malaysia and Indonesia much concern, as Malaysia has 65 citizens in northern Syria while Indonesia has “several hundred”, according to counterterrorism officials.
Advertisement