Leader of world's most populous
Muslim-majority country urges Islamic leaders to unite in tackling extremism
By AFP
 |
| Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president of |
The president of the world's most
populous Muslim-majority country, Indonesia ,
has called the actions of Islamic State militants "embarrassing" to
the religion and urged Islamic leaders to unite in tackling extremism.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the
scale of the slaughter wrought by the extremists in overrunning large swathes
of Iraq and Syria
and the level of violence being used was appalling.
"It is shocking. It is
becoming out of control," he said in an interview with The Australian, a
day after IS released a video showing a masked militant beheading US
reporter James Foley, provoking worldwide revulsion.
"We do not tolerate it, we
forbid ISIS in Indonesia ,"
he added, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ,
as IS was formerly known.
"Indonesia
is not an Islamic state. We respect all religions."
He urged international leaders to
work together to combat radicalisation.
"This is a new wake-up call
to international leaders all over the world, including Islamic leaders," he
said, adding that the actions of IS were not only "embarrassing" to
Islam but "humiliating", the newspaper reported.
"All leaders must review how
to combat extremism. Changing paradigms on both sides are needed - how the West
perceives Islam and how Islam perceives the West."
"Our citizens here in Indonesia
are picking up recruitment messages from ISIS containing
extremist ideas," said the president, whose decade in office comes to an
end in October.
"The philosophy of ISIS
stands against the fundamental values we embrace in Indonesia .
Last Friday, in my state of the union address to the nation, I called on all
Indonesians to reject ISIS and to stop the spread of its
radical ideology.
"My government and security
agencies have taken decisive steps to curtail the spread of ISIS
in Indonesia , including
by prohibiting Indonesians to join ISIS or to fight for ISIS ,
and also by blocking Internet sites that promote this idea."
Elite soldiers fought Isis
militants during night-time raid to free US
journalist and other hostages, but failed to locate them
By Spencer Ackerman
 |
| James Foley resting in a room at the airport of Photograph: Aris Messinis/ |
Elite US
military forces secretly invaded Syria
recently in a risky and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to free US
journalist James Foley before he was killed by Islamic State (Isis) militants, the
Pentagon announced on Wednesday.
Confirmation of the failed night-time
raid, which took place earlier this summer, came after a day of sharp
questioning over whether the Obama administration had done enough to save Foley's
life. It represented the first confirmation of US military operations within
insurgency-wracked Syria ,
where Isis gestated into the jihadist organisation that
has redrawn the borders of the Middle East .
The raid involved dozens of
special operations forces from all US
military services, including the 160th special operations aviation regiment. US
forces flew into Syria
in defiance of air defence batteries that senior military officials have
described as highly threatening to pilots. Modified Black Hawk helicopters were
involved, and "armed fixed-wing aircraft and drones" provided cover
to forces on the ground, said an administration official.
Yet the operation, which took
place in an area of Syria
that officials declined to disclose, failed when "the hostages were not
present at the targeted location," said rear admiral John Kirby, the
Pentagon press secretary.
Special operations forces got
into a "firefight" with Isis forces, an
official said, killing "several" of them. It took an unspecified
amount of time for them to determine that the hostages were not at the scene, prompting
a rapid departure. "They were shot at as they were egressing. One person
had a minor injury," the official said.
The official said that Isis
"did not know who they were fighting that night, and we assess Syria
did not know" about the secret incursion.
It is unclear how many hostages
the elite troops, which Kirby called "the best of the United
States military," attempted to free. At
least one other US
journalist, Steven Sotloff, is known to be in Isis
custody. Disclosure of the unsuccessful operation may have consequences for
Sotloff, whom Isis has threatened to kill unless the US
ends its bombing campaign against it.
With Sotloff's fate an open
question, Kirby said in a statement: "The United
States will not tolerate the abduction of
our people, and will work tirelessly to secure the safety of our citizens and
to hold their captors accountable."
White House counter-terrorism
adviser Lisa Monaco added: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the
remaining hostages' families and their loved ones during this difficult time."
It is also unclear whether the
intelligence on the hostages' location was fundamentally flawed or perishable
by the time of the raid. Monaco
said the US had
"what we believed to be sufficient intelligence" justifying the
strike.
Robert Caruso, a navy
intelligence veteran, said Isis and similar
organizations "lie about where they are, where they're going to be in two
hours, and they definitely don't talk about it on the telephone."
Caruso also questioned the wisdom
of releasing information about the raid.
"It's pretty cavalier for
the administration to condemn Snowden and turn around and endanger the
remaining hostages. That's not Opsec [operational security]. I've taught it, to
the military and the state department. That's not Opsec," he said.
The US
official, who was not cleared to speak for the record, acknowledged the risk of
the disclosure to Satloff.
"There is concern that
releasing this jeopardises the hostages that remain, but a number of news
outlets got ahold of these details and were going to run with this story,"
the official said, saying that the administration was withholding significant
details.
French journalist Nicolas Henin
has described how he had spent seven months in captivity with Foley in Syria ,
including a week during which they were handcuffed together.
Henin, who was released in April
this year, told the BBC he felt the UK
and US
governments were putting their people at risk by not negotiating with the
terrorists, and that Foley, as an American, was "some kind of scapegoat"
for the terrorists.
Henin said Foley had coped better
than others with the conditions in captivity but had also been treated
differently. "Being an American he was probably more targeted by the
kidnappers. Well, he would be beaten a bit more probably, he was some kind of
scapegoat," he told the BBC .
"Some countries like America
but also like the UK
do not negotiate and, well, they put their people at risk."
Henin paid tribute to his former
colleague and friend, saying he had been generous with other captives if they
were cold or hungry. He said he was horrified by Foley's killing but would
focus on positive memories from their time together.
"I will try to just remember
few, very few opportunities we had to laugh loud together – and it did happen
actually a couple of times," he said.
The Press Association contributed
to this report
