Malaysia arrests 16 terror suspects

Malaysian police have arrested 16 individuals suspected of terrorist activities, including a group that has pledged allegiance to a Malaysian Islamic State (IS) member in Syria.

Fourteen of the suspects belonged to a local cell and have used internet to swear an oath of allegiance to Mohamad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, a Malaysian IS militant in Syria, police said on Sunday.

The police said they believed the group had channelled fund to Mohamad Wanndy.

The militant believed to be the mastermind of the first and so far the only IS related attack in Malaysia, when a grenade hit a bar in outskirt of the capital city of Kuala Lumpur in June, injuring several people.

A university student was arrested after being repatriated from Turkey, where he planned to sneak across the border into Syria, the police said.

Police also detained a man from North Africa, who is a suspected member of the formerly al-Qaeda affiliated militant group of Jahbat Al Nusra in Syria.

Police said the man had involved in falsifying travel documents for the militant group while in Malaysia.

Malaysia authorities have arrested more than 230 terror suspects in the past three years. Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid called for robust and effective international actions in the collective fight against terrorism in his address to the United Nations General Assembly. Endit