The United States has designated the ISIL-linked Indonesian Takfiri network that carried out a deadly attack in Jakarta last year as a terrorist organization.
The State Department said Tuesday that Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) is “a terrorist group based in Indonesia that was formed in 2015 and is composed of almost two dozen Indonesian extremist groups” who are followers of ISIL.
The US also announced sanctions against four militants as part of efforts to cut off ISIL’s access to the international financial system.
US officials said militants from JAD carried out a gun and suicide attack in the Indonesian capital in January last year that left four civilians and four attackers dead in the first ISIL attack in Southeast Asia.
The attack was financially supported by an ISIL militant in Syria, they said.
The State Department said the consequences of being designated a terrorist group included a ban on US citizens engaging in business with JAD, and the freezing of any property linked to the group in America.
JAD has been connected to a series of other plots in Indonesia, including a firebomb attack on a church that killed a toddler and a plan to launch a Christmas-time suicide bombing which was foiled when the militants planning the attack were killed.
Among the four militants to be sanctioned are two Indonesians.
Bahrumsyah is an Indonesian fighting with ISIL in Syria who is believed to lead a Southeast Asian unit of Takfiris, and who has sought to order attacks back home and transferred funds to militants.
The other Indonesian militant is Aman Abdurrahman, a jailed extremist who authorized the Jakarta attack and is considered the de facto leader of all ISIL supporters in Indonesia, according to US officials.
Despite being in prison since 2010, he has recruited militants to join ISIL, is thought to have been in communication with leaders of the Takfiri group, and is the main translator for ISIL propaganda in Indonesia.
The Treasury also slapped sanctions on two Australians — Neil Christopher Prakash, ISIL’s most senior Australian recruiter, and Khaled Sharrouf, who has appeared in photographs holding the severed heads of people executed by the terrorists.
Source: AFP
