Malaysian Police Say Arrested 5 Over Links to al-Qaeda, Daesh

Malaysian police have arrested five people, including a European, over links to Daesh, also known as ISIL/the Islamic state, and al-Qaeda militant groups, the Inspector-General of Police said Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said that the five were arrested in counterterrorism operations on November 27-December 1 in several regions of the country, including the capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

"The European man was arrested in the city and was working as a part-time English teacher in Penang. He had joined Al-Qaeda previously and he was involved in terror activities in Afghanistan and Bosnia," Khalid said in a statement, as quoted by The Malaysian Insider portal.

Three detainees were linked to Daesh and were recruiting fighters to carry out attacks abroad, Khalid said.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the two most-populated Muslim-majority countries of the region, are the homelands of the largest percentage of Daesh fighters originating from Southeast Asia.

Daesh, also known as ISIL/the Islamic state, is a militant group which took over large areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014. It is outlawed in many countries including Russia. The group gained notoriety for its human rights atrocities, and has offshoots in many countries.