Kuala Lumpur, Aug 13 (IANS): At least nine suspects linked with the Islamic State (IS) militant group were arrested in Malaysia, police said on Saturday.

They were arrested by the police counter terrorism forces in Kuala Lumpur and other states between late July and early August, Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying in a statement.

Two of them were involved in an earlier grenade bombing on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the first IS related attack in the country, the police said.

A 17-year-old suspect detained in the state of Sabah had received orders from an IS militant in Syria to launch a lone wolf attack, according to the police.

Three foreigners were also arrested in the operations who police believed were using Malaysia as a transit point while they obtained forged travel documents to launch an attack in the Middle East.

Malaysia authorities said 230 IS members were arrested since 2013 while 90 Malaysians were identified to be linked with the IS in Syria.