Malaysia arrests Islamic State suspects for grenade attack on bar
Malaysian police have arrested nine militants, including two suspected of carrying out a grenade attack, claimed by Islamic State, at a nightspot on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in June, the country's police chief said on Saturday.
A known Malaysian IS fighter in Syria, Muhammad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi, had said in a posting on his Facebook page that the group had carried out the June 28 attack on a bar in the Puchong neighbourhood that wounded eight people.
If the claim was genuine it would have been the first attack by IS on Malaysian soil.
Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said the two men who carried out the attack had been caught in the northeastern state of Kelantan, where they had been awaiting instructions from Wanndy to carry out further attacks.
"Following on from their arrest, police managed to seize a grenade, and it was suspected it would have been used in a planned attack," Khalid said.
He said two other people had been arrested for helping to hide the suspects.
Police had also tracked down a suspected IS member, whose cell had received orders from Wanndy, and had threatened attacks on the police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and on government buildings in the country's administrative capital of Putrajaya, Khalid said.
Others arrested included a 17-year-old in the eastern state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo, who was believed to have been planning a 'lone wolf' attack on non-Muslims after communicating with another Malaysian IS member in Syria.