ISIS has entered Thailand: Russia

The Thai police on Friday said that Moscow’s top intelligence agency has warned a group of 10 militants from the self-styled ISIS has entered the kingdom to target Russians.

A leaked letter, marked “secret” and “urgent” and signed by the deputy head of Thailand’s special branch, was widely circulated on local media late Thursday.

It said Moscow’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has told the Thai police that 10 Syrian militants from ISIS entered the country between October 15 and 31 to target Russian interests.

Thailand is a major holiday destination for Russian tourists, particularly during the peak Christmas and New Year holidays.

“They (the Syrians) tra-velled separately. Four went to Pattaya, two to Phuket, two to Bangkok and the other two to (an) unknown location,” the letter said, citing the info-rmation from Russia’s top intelligence agency.

“Their purpose is to create bad incidents to effect Russians and Russia’s alliance with Thailand,” the letter said, without naming the suspects.

The Russian embassy in Bangkok could not be immediately reached for comment. But a deputy spokesman for the Thai police said “the letter is real”. “So far it’s only intelligence news that still needs to be proved... We have no proof if they are here for real or not,” Songpol Wattanachai told reporters. “Please be confident (in Thailand) — we won’t disregard the intelligence.”

Meanwhile, Thailand’s foreign minister on Frid-ay urged regional nations to redouble efforts to tackle the causes of 2015’s Bay of Bengal migrant crisis, warning the issue “will not simply go away”.

Delegations from across Southeast Asia met in Bangkok for talks over migration, six months after a belated Thai crackdown on human trafficking gangs saw thousands of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh abandoned at sea.