Suicide bombers could change Asian terror threat

Suicide bombers could change Asian terror threat

Reuters, Singapore

The emergence of suicide bombers in Southeast Asia would represent a significant increase in the terrorist threat to the region, Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Wednesday.

Malaysia on Tuesday arrested four suspected members of a Muslim militant group Jamaah Islamiah (JI), which police said included members of a suicide squad who were part of a plot to bomb U.S. interests in Singapore last year.

The four suspected JI's members were caught between Nov. 16 and 20 in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.

One of the suspects arrested in Indonesia for the bomb blasts that killed more than 190 people on the resort island of Bali last month reportedly told local police the attack began when a suicide bomber blew himself up.

"Two Indonesians who died in recent terrorist bombings were believed to be suicide bombers," Goh said in a speech to the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

"And Malaysia has just arrested four JI members who were said to be members of a suicide squad." "If so, this would represent a significant increase in the dangerous nature of the terrorist threat," he said.

Goh did not elaborate on who the second suspected Indonesian suicide bomber was, and the claim that the first Bali bomb was set off by a suicide bomber is still being investigated.

But in the past year, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore have all arrested dozens of suspected members of the Jamaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Singapore, a close ally of Washington that hosts a U.S. naval logistics base and numerous American corporations, has detained 31 men without trial on suspicion of planning attacks on U.S. targets and installations such as reservoirs and chemical plants. Goh said the Singapore arrests had severely disrupted the terrorist network in the city state.

"They pose no immediate danger." But he added: "They may be able to strike us even if there are few or no local operatives. But we are well prepared to face it."

Singapore has tightened security around key installations such as the airport, chemical refineries and border crossings with Malaysia. It has also closed off streets to cars near popular entertainment areas for Westerners.

"The Bali bomb blasts have further reinforced our fear that Southeast Asia has become the new theater of operation of al- Qaeda," he said.

However, Goh was keen to stress that the current situation was not exceptional.

"We have gone through worse times," he said citing the early 1960's when a regional conflict between Malaysia and Indonesia led to bombs exploding in busy Orchard Road, now a famous shopping district.

A terrorism expert said on Wednesday that the appearance of potential suicide bombers in Southeast Asia marks a new approach by extremist attackers in the region, but leaders are finding it hard to enlist recruits.

"This is the first instance where Southeast Asians have decided to go down the road of suicide terrorism," terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna told Reuters in an interview.

"The willingness of JI to conduct a suicide attack is a demonstration that members of Southeast Asian groups are radicalized now, and sooner or later we will witness suicide attacks in this region," said Gunaratna, author of Inside Al- Qaeda: Global Network of Terror.

With suicide attacks generally carried out only by those in the most extreme of circumstances, suicide tactics have not been necessary in Southeast Asia where security has long been lax -- especially when compared with the Middle East or Europe.

"Because of the security in the Middle East... suicide bombings were the only chance of 'success'," said Greg Fealy, an expert on Indonesian Islam at Australian National University.

"And the level of radicalization (in this region) has not been as deep."

The four arrested this week -- three Malaysians and one Singaporean -- were part of a larger suicide team, Gunaratna said.

The latest arrests take to 73 the suspected militants held in Malaysia under a tough internal security law imposed after the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York that the Americans blamed on Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

Despite a Muslim population of 240 million in Southeast Asia -- about a quarter of the world's total -- few were prepared to take part in the kinds of suicide attacks seen in the Middle East and South Asia, Gunaratna said.

Sri Lankan Tamils perfected the practice, notably killing former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Imperial Japan's kamikaze pilots were another regional exception.

"Suicide bombers are very difficult for them to find in this region," Gunaratna said. "It will take more time."

That was underscored in interrogations of the four. "Malays don't make good suicide bombers," said a Malaysian official in Kuala Lumpur familiar with the investigation. "I think they might not have had the same spirit as Palestinian suicide bombers. Ours are a very different breed." He explained they were far softer, being less used to hardship and also very family oriented, unable to leave their families for too long. He noted that the suspects had been caught coming home.