ISIS detected in Bali: Military

The Indonesian military (TNI) says it has detected 50 people suspected of being part of the ISIS terror network on the island of Bali.

Indonesia is now at “yellow light” alert level to the potential threat of terrorism and radicalism, according to Commander Maj. Gen. Komarudin Simanjuntak, who is in command of Kodam IX, the region covering Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, and West Nusa Tenggara.

Simanjuntak says that figure, of 50 people linked to ISIS being detected in Bali, that’s just the official count and that there could be more.

“That’s from the data. Maybe it’s even more in the field. We can compare it to the Philippines, where initially it was reported that there were 50 people with ISIS links, but after martial law was applied there (in the Southern Philippines) for 10 days, it was revealed that there were 250 ISIS,” the commander said on Monday, as quoted by Tribun Bali.

When asked in which part of Bali the 50 were located, Simanjuntak said that while TNI was already aware, he could not disclose that information.

Kodam IX soldiers have been instructed to carry out patrols in designated areas, especially where pockets of radicalism are believed to be hiding.

Regarding the attack on an officer from Bali Police’s elite Mobile Brigade Unit, last week in Jimbaran, Simanjuntak says a special intel team has been lowered to further investigate the case.

Mobile Brigade Unit Brigadier Bagus Suda Suwarna was found battered and unconscious on August 7 at a parking garage on the grounds of the 90-hectare Ayana Resort where he had been assigned. A security guard found Suwarna on the ground, with his AK-101 rifle missing, along with a magazine containing three blank bullets and 27 rubber bullets. The officer is reportedly in stable condition but the suspects and the weapon remain at large.