On Mar. 30, the US Treasury Department designated Bahrun Naim as a terrorist. Naim is one of the most prolific planners of the Islamic State’s so-called “remote-controlled” attacks. Most of his plots have been thwarted by counterterrorism officials, but he has a broad network of supporters in Indonesia.

The Pentagon announced that 11 al Qaeda operatives were killed in a pair of airstrikes near Idlib, Syria earlier this month. One of them, Abu Hani al Masri, is described as “a legacy al Qaeda terrorist with ties to the group’s senior leaders, including Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.”

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Counterterrorism authorities are instructing banks to deny loans to persons suspected of sympathizing with the Islamic State, after at least five Malaysians were found to have taken out loans to finance their travel to join or otherwise support the group. Among those recently arrested are a former Malaysian military trainer, who was detained at Kuala Lumpur airport as he tried to fly to Syria, and a woman who had borrowed nearly $30,000 for the trip.

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A top counterterrorism official said Islamic State militants from a group of 19 arrested for plotting terrorist attacks in Malaysia had acquired aluminum powder for use in making bombs. He also said 12 of the 19 suspects have been released for lack of evidence. Recruiting for the group in Malaysia is swift, he noted, and recruits are being sent to Syria despite the recent arrests. The only prominent Muslim leader in Malaysia who has denounced the Islamic State is former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

A top Malaysian counterterrorism official said police had foiled terrorist plans to bomb targets in Malaysia and set up regional and global Islamic State networks; 19 suspects were arrested. The suspects, who sought to establish an Islamic caliphate comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore, included two housewives as well as professionals, and some had tried to travel to Turkey and Syria for training by the Islamic State. The official said last week some 20 to 30 Malaysians had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State but that the actual number might be “a lot higher.”

After eight suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen ambushed a police guardpost at a Mabul Island resort late on July 12, killing one policeman and kidnapping another, authorities launched a search for the attackers. Some officials noted that the attackers came with intent to kill. The navy has been given permission to shoot intruders if necessary to prevent a threat to national security. The Islamist PAS party sacked members Dr. Mahmud Ahmad, Muhammad Joraimee Awang Rimee, and Mohd Najib Husen, for alleged militant activities; the three men were supposedly on humanitarian missions in Mindanao in the Philippines.

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Zulkifli bin Hir, a most-wanted terrorist linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Sayyaf, and the KMM who was reported killed in 2012, is operating in the southern Philippines.

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A top police official said special operations forces arrested a wanted Shabaab militant in Selangor today. The suspect, a 34-year-old East African, had allegedly fled to Malaysia following Shabaab’s attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Malaysian authorities have arrested 12 suspected terrorists in several locations since April 29.

Malaysian police have detained 11 militants suspected of domestic and international terrorism and planning to send fighters to Syria; the head of police said they are not suspected in the disappearance of missing flight MH 370. The search for the airliner is so far unsuccessful after 334 search flights. Heavily armed gunmen in army uniforms stole three boat engines near Sungai Bilis. The head of the MCA party vowed to prevent the implementation of hudud, or Islamic law.

Police arrested nine Malaysian militants in Kuala Lumpur and Kedah state. The national police chief said the suspects had links to foreign terrorist cells and belonged to a militant group that planned terror attacks at home and abroad.

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A Malaysian official said that MA flight MH370, which crashed into the ocean on March 8 with 239 people on board, was hijacked and that its communications systems had been deliberately turned off hours before it disappeared. A criminal investigation has been opened.

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