KUALA LUMPUR: Bukit Aman has detected nearly 100 Malaysians keen on heading to Syria and southern Philippines to join a false jihad with the Islamic State.

This intelligence was obtained after monitoring some 4,000 social media pages, said Bukit Aman Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division head Deputy Comm Datuk Ayob Khan.

“We will continue our surveillance on them,” he said in an interview.

Despite the terror group losing ground in Syria and Iraq, as well as constant enforcement against militants in Malaysia, DCP Ayob said these misguided individuals were still being fooled by IS recruiters.

“The main recruiter in Syria is none other than Akel Zainal, a Malaysian,” DCP Ayob said.

“Following the death of Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi in April, Akel has taken over as the Malaysian militant leader to recruit more people for the IS cause.

“He is using social media sites as one of their main recruiting tools.”

Akel went to Syria on Jan 3, 2014. Intelligence indicated that he was active in fire fights and terror operations in Syria, DCP Ayob said.

It is learnt that the 38-year-old, whose real name is Wan Mohd Aquil Wan Zainal Abidin, has been recruiting young Malaysians to fight with him in Syria.

“He is an ex-musician and has at least 15,000 followers on Facebook.

“One of the first recruited by Akel was a female Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor student in October 2014.

“She ended up going to Syria and marrying him,” he said.

The Counter Terrorism Division has so far identified 54 Malaysians – 23 men, 11 women, 12 boys and eight girls – still in Syria.

“Since 2013, we discovered 102 Malaysians had gone to Syria.

“At least 11 of them have returned home while 37 men have been killed in Syria and Iraq.

“The remainder are still in Syria with IS,” he said.

While some Malaysians in Syria were trapped in the Deir Ez Zour and Al Bukamal districts, DCP Ayob said they moved around due to offensive operations by Syrian and Russian forces on IS and rebel strongholds.

“Others are in refugee camps in northern Syria while some are imprisoned by Syrian rebels,” he said.