DHAKA: In its latest effort to reach out to supporters in South-east Asia, the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria has posted photos and a video of Malay-speaking children training with weapons.

The footage depicts a group of at least 20 boys studying, praying, eating and undergoing defense and weapons lessons in territory held by the terrorist group.

It comes amid warnings by experts that IS is beefing up its external operations wing and courting further support in the region.

‘There has been a surge in Indonesian- and Malay-language material posted by IS online,’ Jasminder Singh, a research analyst at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told The Straits Times.

‘There have been previous videos featuring Arab and Central Asian children, and it is clear they are now reaching out to target supporters in South-east Asia.’

Titled ‘Education In The Caliphate’, the video was posted over the weekend by the Malay-language media division of IS, as a teaser for a longer piece to be posted later.

Also uploaded are ‘exclusive’ photos of students at the Abdullah Azzam academy, which uses Malay as a medium of instruction and was set up for the children of South-east Asian fighters.

Abdullah Azzam was a radical ideologue who mentored Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

BDST: 1213 HRS, MAR 17, 2015