Asian states eye sea security after threats, U.S. warning

Asian states eye sea security after threats, U.S. warning

Ed Cropley, Reuters, Bangkok

Letters sent to the South Korean and Pakistani embassies in
Thailand threatening America's Asian allies sparked fresh
security fears on Thursday as Washington told the region to be on
alert for attacks on its crowded sea lanes.

Speaking in Singapore, a top U.S. State Department official
said U.S. authorities had good reason to believe terror groups
would target critical shipping routes such as the Malacca and
Singapore straits.

Seoul ordered an immediate extension of already heightened
security measures at ports and airports in response to a letter
signed by a hitherto unknown group calling itself the 'Yellow-Red
Overseas Organization'.

"The letter said eight countries with alliances with the
United States were being targeted," a Foreign Ministry official
said, without elaborating.

Seoul's Yonhap news agency identified the countries as
Australia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South
Korea, Thailand and Kuwait, and said the threat was made against
"major facilities" from April 20 to 30.

All of the countries have to a greater or less extent helped
Washington in its "war on terror". Seoul, which has had 600
military engineers and medics in Iraq since last May, plans to
send another 3,000 troops by mid-June.

An official in charge of port security at the Maritime Affairs
and Fisheries Ministry told Reuters the National Intelligence
Service had ordered the alert until April 30.

Apart from the threats to ports such as Pusan, South Korea's
second city and one of Asia's busiest ports, U.S. authorities now
believe the region's shipping lanes, the arteries of world trade,
could be the militants' next target.

"We have begun to focus on the potential of a disastrous
maritime terrorist incident," Matthew Daley, U.S. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State, told a security conference in
Singapore.

An attack on the Strait of Malacca would strike at Asia's
economic heart. More than a quarter of the world's trade, half of
its oil and much of its liquefied natural gas pass through the
strait, which divides Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

The United States had raised its fears with Asian governments
for the past year but remained deeply concerned about the safety
of the region's shipping lanes, Daley said.

Assaults by al-Qaeda on commercial shipping in Yemen and the
Arabian Sea and planned attacks in several straits, including the
Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and North Africa, showed that
U.S. concerns were not simply theoretical.

"We believe it essential to work with the countries of the
region to rapidly improve maritime security," Daley said.

In Hong Kong, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the city and
commercial centers like it could be targets for al-Qaeda and
other terror groups seeking to inflict economic damage.

"Those where there are a number of Americans or American
companies have to be alert to the possibility of terrorist
attacks," Mueller said.

He said economic hubs such as Hong Kong also had to be alert
to attempts by terror groups to abuse sophisticated financial
systems for their own ends.

"Hong Kong is one of the principal transit points in the
world. People come through, monies comes through, and it's
important that...persons be alert to the abuse of the systems for
terrorism, organized crime or other threats," Mueller said.

Piracy and armed robbery in the straits of Malacca and
Singapore had already increased rapidly, Daley noted.

"We know that terrorists in Southeast Asia are increasingly
turning to soft targets. Moreover, as both the physical and
political space in which they find sanctuary shrinks -- as the
noose tightens -- we have good reason to believe terrorists will
increasingly turn to the most unregulated of spaces -- the sea."