Terrorists seeking new targets: S'pore

Terrorists seeking new targets: S'pore

SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian terrorist groups are seeking new
targets and remain a serious threat to the region, Singapore's
Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said on Friday.

"Indeed, notwithstanding our successes, we have clearly seen a
certain resilience in the terror networks in the region to
regenerate itself with new recruits," Wong said at the launching
ceremony of a new frigate for the Singapore navy.

"While we may have seen fewer car bombs of late, we have seen
more suicide bombers with body-borne bombs," he said.

Southeast Asia has been described by the United States as the
second front in its global "war on terror". Jamaah Islamiyah
(JI), an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, has been blamed for several
attacks in the region, especially in Indonesia.

"The terror groups are constantly seeking to exploit the
loopholes and gaps in our collective security response," Wong
said.

"The terror groups also continue to adapt and adopt new
methods and explore new target arenas for action as the
authorities grow wise to their old methods and tighten up
security in the arenas where they had operated before." --AFP