Night shot of Singapore's up-market waterfront district, with the iconic Marina Bay Sands: it was a target of militants plotting rocket attack from Batam island, say Indonesian authorities who foiled the plot. INTERAKSYON FILE, CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Indonesian police Friday arrested six suspected militants over a plot to launch a rocket attack on an up-market Singapore waterfront district from a nearby island, prompting the city-state to tighten security.
The six men, aged between 19 and 46, were detained on the Indonesian island of Batam, which lies just south of the affluent city-state, said national police spokesman Agus Rianto.
The alleged leader of the group, Gigih Rahmat Dewa, is accused of planning the attack with Bahrun Naim, a leading Indonesian militant who is believed to be fighting with the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, Rianto said.
It was the latest terror plot in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, where there has been a surge in attacks and attempted attacks this year due to the growing influence of IS.
The pair "planned a terror attack in Singapore. They wanted to attack Singapore with a rocket from Batam," the spokesman told reporters.
Another police spokesman, Boy Rafli Amar, said the target was Marina Bay. The district is home to Marina Bay Sands, a luxury complex that includes shopping malls, hotels and a casino.
Rianto added police had "preliminary data" and were still investigating the plot.
'Serious threat'
Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement it was "aware that plans were being made by the six terror suspects arrested by the Indonesian authorities" and that its security agencies had been working with Indonesian officials.
"In response to this threat and the prevailing security situation, police and other agencies have been stepping up inland and border security measures," it said.
"This development highlights the seriousness of the terrorism threat to Singapore."
There have been signs of support for IS in the city-state. Singapore last month jailed four Bangladeshi workers accused of planning to join IS for between two and five years for raising money to fund attacks in their homeland.Authorities last week detained a 44-year-old Australia-based Singaporean who allegedly glorified IS and backed the establishment of a caliphate in the city-state.
Police suspect Dewa, 31, received and distributed funds sent by Naim. Naim has been linked tseveral recent terror plots in Indonesia, including a suicide bomb attack on a police station in the city of Solo last month that left one police officer injured.
Dewa is also accused of previously harbouring two members of China's ethnic Uighur minority, some of whom have travelled to Indonesia to join militant groups, and of helping extremists on their journeys to Syria.
Indonesia has long struggled with Islamic militancy and has suffered a string of attacks in the past 15 years, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.
A crackdown had weakened the most dangerous networks but IS has proved a potent new rallying cry for the country's radicals, and hundreds of Indonesians have headed to the Middle East to join the jihadists.
In January IS-linked militants launched a deadly gun and bomb attack in Jakarta which left four attackers and four civilians dead.
http://interaksyon.com/article/131155/indonesia-foils-plot-to-mount-rocket-attack-on-singapores-marina-bay
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