Nine suspects connected to activities of the Islamic State (IS) were arrested, including two involved in an earlier attack in Malaysia, police said Saturday.

The nine were arrested by the police counter terrorism forces in the capital of Kuala Lumpur and other states from late July to early August, police said in a statement.

Two of the suspects were involved in an earlier grenade bombing in the outskirt of Kuala Lumpur, the first IS related attack in the country, the police said, adding that another grenade was seized as the two were waiting orders from the IS to launch another attack.

A 17-year-old suspect detained in the state of Sabah on North Borneo 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 are using Malaysia as a transit point while they obtained forged travel documents to launch an attack in the Middle East.

The Malaysia authorities said 230 IS members had been arrested since 2013 while 90 Malaysians had been identified to be involved in IS activity in Syria.

Xinhua