Marwan was ISIS conduit

MANILA, Philippines–Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, was the conduit for Southeast Asia of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that his death cut off an important line to the extremist group, a major score in the war against global terror.

“We must understand the role of Marwan. Aside from his previous involvements in numerous activities such as the Bali bombing and the other bombings in southern Philippines, he had a very important role as the facilitator of the movement of some people to ISIS,” National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia told the Inquirer a day after the US confirmed Marwan’s death.

Marwan, a member of the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, was killed by members of the elite Special Action Force (SAF) in a dawn raid on his lair in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao on Jan. 25.

An expert bomber, Marwan was dubbed the Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia.

Aside from masterminding several terror attacks such as the 2002 Bali bombing, Marwan was “a facilitator of a loose network of jihadists in the region,” Garcia said.

Garcia said Marwan had been recruiting Malaysian, Indonesian and “maybe some Filipinos” to join the ISIS in the Middle East.

There were three Filipinos who “might have gone” to the Middle East to join ISIS, Garcia said.

“The number of recruits is few and far between. We haven’t really established if they had joined ISIS. But two of (the three Filipinos) are Fil-Europeans. They were born in Europe and one of the parents is Filipino,” he said.