Exclusive by BI Investigative Team
Habiba Kiram (right) – how reliable is the FB information?
KOTA KINABALU: The ‘invasion of Sabah’ by the militant group calling themselves the Royal Army of Sulu Sultanate (RAS) was apparently planned at least seven months ago.
A Facebook message of one of the key RAS officials, Habiba Kiram that was forwarded to the Borneo Insider by a reliable source, also indicated that the group was getting ready to invade Sabah in late November, last year.
And Habiba has even implicated the United States elite forces for backing their cause to claim back Sabah. (see attached photo of the Facebook message).
Habiba allegedly claimed that they were waiting for the US elite forces to give them the signal and that some 10,000 of its armed men were already in Sabah since seven months ago.
(Disclaimer: Borneo Insider has no way of confirming this with any of the United States authorities and we only can go by the remarks made in the Facebook conversation between Habiba and another party).
It is understood that the Malaysian intelligence community was said to have been alerted about it sometime in July last year.
This came about following information leaked by unknown sources that a key RAS official was raising funds to purchase a sizeable quantity of firearms, including assault rifles, in Bongao, Tawi Tawi, in Philippines.
Take note of the messages in the FB grab.
Sources close to the Malaysian intelligence community also told Borneo Insider that no one should take the “attempted invasion” lightly, citing that members of the militant group comprised of war-hardened militants who have got nothing to fear or lose.
“They (RAS) are determined to claim back Sabah and this attempt (intrusion) is part of their plans to achieve that, so as to create sufficient international attention.
They are also planning to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice to file for an official claim of part of their territories in Sabah,” said the source.
(DISCLAIMER: The Borneo Insider has absolutely no way of confirming the exact authenticity of the alleged Facebook ‘conversations’ between Habiba and the second party, except to state that the source who gave us the two FB-Grabs claims the ‘conversation’ did take place).
This FB grab shows the claim made by Habiba that they are waiting for US forces to give the signal.
