Source:  www.persecution.org

Date:  May 17, 2022

Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – Five Indonesian nationals who had their assets frozen by the United States are suspected of financing Islamic State efforts to recruit teenagers. The Islamic militant group seeks to recruit young fighters in the Muslim-majority country that they can send to Syria and other areas where ISIS operates.

Two suspects are in Indonesia, while the other three are at Camp Al-Hol in Syria near the Turkish border. Last Monday, May 9, the U.S. Treasury Department named the five suspects, saying the United States had frozen their U.S. assets and prohibited people from engaging in certain transactions with them.

“The five individuals…have played a key role in facilitating the travel of extremists to Syria and other areas where ISIS operates,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in a news release.

The Treasury identified the five as Dwi Dahlia Susanti, Rudi Heryadi, Ari Kardian, Muhammad Dandi Adhiguna and Dini Ramadhani.

“By designating them, we aim to expose and disrupt an international ISIS facilitation network that has financed ISIS recruitment, including of vulnerable children in Syria,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a separate statement.

In Jakarta, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Nurwahid, director of prevention for Indonesia’s National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), confirmed that the five were foreign terrorist fighters, a term used for Indonesian nationals who join militant groups abroad. Nurwahid declined to disclose how much money the five had allegedly raised to support ISIS.

“We can’t reveal the figures because it’s part of the investigation,” Nurwahid told media outlets. “Furthermore, the government, in this case, BNPT, will follow up in accordance with the existing authorities and powers based on the law.”

HOW TO PRAY: Pray for ISIS’s recruitment efforts to be thwarted. Pray for these Indonesian nationals to be held accountable. Pray for ISIS’s influence in Indonesia to decline.