SE Asia faces higher chemical-attack risk

SE Asia faces higher chemical-attack risk

MALAYSIA: Links between Southeast Asian terrorist groups and al- Qaeda combined with a burgeoning chemical industry raise the risk of a chemical attack in the region, a Japanese security official said on Friday.

Southeast Asia has been on guard against terrorist attacks since the 2002 Bali bombings that were blamed on the Jamaah Islamiyah network, a shadowy group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

"We should not underestimate -- because in this region there is a growing chemical industry," said Kazuhiro Nakai, director of the biological and chemical weapon conventions division at Japan's foreign affairs ministry.

"Second, we have a local terrorist network here," he said after a security conference. "They are linked with international terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda." -- Reuters