Suicide bombers could change Asian terror threat<\/p>\n
Reuters, Singapore<\/p>\n
The emergence of suicide bombers in Southeast Asia would
\nrepresent a significant increase in the terrorist threat to the
\nregion, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
Malaysia on Tuesday arrested four suspected members of a
\nMuslim militant group Jamaah Islamiah (JI), which police said
\nincluded members of a suicide squad who were part of a plot to
\nbomb U.S. interests in Singapore last year.<\/p>\n
The four suspected JI's members were caught between Nov. 16
\nand 20 in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.<\/p>\n
One of the suspects arrested in Indonesia for the bomb blasts
\nthat killed more than 190 people on the resort island of Bali
\nlast month reportedly told local police the attack began when a
\nsuicide bomber blew himself up.<\/p>\n
\"Two Indonesians who died in recent terrorist bombings were
\nbelieved to be suicide bombers,\" Goh said in a speech to the
\nSingapore Institute of International Affairs.<\/p>\n
\"And Malaysia has just arrested four JI members who were said
\nto be members of a suicide squad.\"
\n\"If so, this would represent a significant increase in the
\ndangerous nature of the terrorist threat,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Goh did not elaborate on who the second suspected Indonesian
\nsuicide bomber was, and the claim that the first Bali bomb was
\nset off by a suicide bomber is still being investigated.<\/p>\n
But in the past year, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and
\nSingapore have all arrested dozens of suspected members of the
\nJamaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian group linked to Osama bin
\nLaden's al-Qaeda network.<\/p>\n
Singapore, a close ally of Washington that hosts a U.S. naval
\nlogistics base and numerous American corporations, has detained
\n31 men without trial on suspicion of planning attacks on U.S.
\ntargets and installations such as reservoirs and chemical plants.
\nGoh said the Singapore arrests had severely disrupted the
\nterrorist network in the city state.<\/p>\n
\"They pose no immediate danger.\" But he added: \"They may be
\nable to strike us even if there are few or no local operatives.
\nBut we are well prepared to face it.\"<\/p>\n
Singapore has tightened security around key installations such
\nas the airport, chemical refineries and border crossings with
\nMalaysia. It has also closed off streets to cars near popular
\nentertainment areas for Westerners.<\/p>\n
\"The Bali bomb blasts have further reinforced our fear that
\nSoutheast Asia has become the new theater of operation of al-
\nQaeda,\" he said.<\/p>\n
However, Goh was keen to stress that the current situation was
\nnot exceptional.<\/p>\n
\"We have gone through worse times,\" he said citing the early
\n1960's when a regional conflict between Malaysia and Indonesia
\nled to bombs exploding in busy Orchard Road, now a famous
\nshopping district.<\/p>\n
A terrorism expert said on Wednesday that the appearance of
\npotential suicide bombers in Southeast Asia marks a new approach
\nby extremist attackers in the region, but leaders are finding it
\nhard to enlist recruits.<\/p>\n
\"This is the first instance where Southeast Asians have
\ndecided to go down the road of suicide terrorism,\" terrorism
\nexpert Rohan Gunaratna told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
\"The willingness of JI to conduct a suicide attack is a
\ndemonstration that members of Southeast Asian groups are
\nradicalized now, and sooner or later we will witness suicide
\nattacks in this region,\" said Gunaratna, author of Inside Al-
\nQaeda: Global Network of Terror.<\/p>\n
With suicide attacks generally carried out only by those in
\nthe most extreme of circumstances, suicide tactics have not been
\nnecessary in Southeast Asia where security has long been lax --
\nespecially when compared with the Middle East or Europe.<\/p>\n
\"Because of the security in the Middle East... suicide
\nbombings were the only chance of 'success',\" said Greg Fealy, an
\nexpert on Indonesian Islam at Australian National University.<\/p>\n
\"And the level of radicalization (in this region) has not been
\nas deep.\"<\/p>\n
The four arrested this week -- three Malaysians and one
\nSingaporean -- were part of a larger suicide team, Gunaratna
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The latest arrests take to 73 the suspected militants held in
\nMalaysia under a tough internal security law imposed after the
\nSept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York that the Americans
\nblamed on Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.<\/p>\n
Despite a Muslim population of 240 million in Southeast Asia
\n-- about a quarter of the world's total -- few were prepared to
\ntake part in the kinds of suicide attacks seen in the Middle East
\nand South Asia, Gunaratna said.<\/p>\n
Sri Lankan Tamils perfected the practice, notably killing
\nformer Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Imperial
\nJapan's kamikaze pilots were another regional exception.<\/p>\n
\"Suicide bombers are very difficult for them to find in this
\nregion,\" Gunaratna said. \"It will take more time.\"<\/p>\n
That was underscored in interrogations of the four. \"Malays
\ndon't make good suicide bombers,\" said a Malaysian official in
\nKuala Lumpur familiar with the investigation. \"I think they might
\nnot have had the same spirit as Palestinian suicide bombers. Ours
\nare a very different breed.\" He explained they were far softer,
\nbeing less used to hardship and also very family oriented, unable
\nto leave their families for too long. He noted that the suspects
\nhad been caught coming home.<\/p>",
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