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Indonesian IS militant Bachrumsyah killed in Syria
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Bachrumsyah (left) is the Indonesian commander of South-east Asian militants who have joined ISIS in the Middle East. (Screengrab from Youtube via Straits Times/File)
T
he Indonesian commander of Southeast Asian militants among the ranks of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was killed on Monday in a botched suicide attack on Syrian troops.
Bachrumsyah died after the explosive-laden car he was driving towards a Syrian Arab Army unit in Palmyra blew up prematurely, according to Al-Masdar News.
ISIS confirmed the death of Bahrumsyah on Tuesday but claimed in a post on social media that the attack by "Abu Muhammad al Indonesi" was successful in causing damage on their enemy.
Abu Muhammad al Indonesi, is the nom de guerre of Bachrumsyah.
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 Southeast Asia.
The United States had put him on its terrorists watchlist due to his links with ISIS in January - the same month rumors 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 deradicalization program in a shelter located in East Jakarta.
Indonesia has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks after four militants struck in downtown Jakarta on Jan 14 last year.
ISIS had directly funded the hit on Jakarta, according to the Indonesian police.
Some analysts believe Bachrumsyah may have communicated the order from ISIS central command to mount the attack on Jakarta.
This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
