JI grooming next generation of terrorists: S'pore
JI grooming next generation of terrorists: S'pore
Agence France-Presse, Singapore
The Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist organization is grooming a new generation of militants and planning more Bali-style bomb attacks, Singapore Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said in comments released here on Friday.
Wong told an Asia-Pacific security summit in Hawaii on Thursday that a multi-government crackdown on the al-Qaeda-linked JI had only "disrupted" the group.
"Despite the significant setbacks the JI has suffered over the last two years since its detection and exposure in Singapore in December 2001, the JI terrorist network continues to survive," Wong said.
"What is the reason for the JI's resilience? It is because the JI is capable of re-generating itself."
Wong pointed to the arrest of 19 suspected JI militants who were studying in madrassas, or religious schools, in Pakistan in September.
"Trained in both religious and military and terrorist skills, these young men were being groomed to be the next generation of leaders in the JI," he said.
"In Indonesia the next generation of JI soldiers are also being groomed in JI-controlled religious schools."
"So even as the JI organization is under keen pressure from the security actions from governments in the region, it is already regenerating itself both at the leadership as well as the working or operational level," he said.
"We continue, therefore, not only to live in troubled times but to also expect that such troubled times are going to last for a long time."
Wong said Singapore believed JI militants on the run, including Malaysian explosives expert Azahari Husin, were "likely to plan more suicide bomb attacks along the lines of Bali and the recent Hotel Marriott bombing in Jakarta".
The bombing of two packed bars on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali in October last year killed 202 people. Another 12 people died in an attack on the Marriott hotel in August this year.
Wong also pointed to a Singapore link to the 19 JI suspects who were arrested in Pakistan, all of whom had previously been reported to be Indonesians or Malaysians.
"The cell... consists of the sons of JI members in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore," he said, without giving further details.
The home affairs ministry said later it appeared some of the arrested suspects could have come from Singapore.
"While most of the members of the cell were reportedly Indonesians and Malaysians, there were also indications that there were a few Singaporeans among them," a ministry spokeswoman said in an e-mail response to an AFP query.
"Our investigation is in progress at this moment and we are unable to give further details at this moment."