Suspected Islamic militants arrested in Singapore were plotting attacks on US servicemen, the Singapore Government said on Friday. One plan was to blow up a shuttle bus carrying US personnel between a naval base and a local underground station, a government statement said.
The plan was apparently developed and ready for activation Another plan was to bomb US naval vessels off Singapore, the statement said.
Fifteen suspects were arrested last month, but two have since been released. Details of the plans - including a surveillance video of one of the targets - were discovered at the time of the arrests, the home affairs ministry said.
"The plan was apparently developed and ready for activation," the statement said. It said eight of the men had received weapons training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
The 13 men are being held under the country's controversial internal security act, which allows for detention without trial. The government has said the suspected militants belonged to a group called Jemaah Islamiah, which it said was part of a larger network with cells in Malaysia and Indonesia.
According to a report in Friday's Washington Post newspaper, US and Indonesian officials believe hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters trained at a camp in Indonesia last year, and fear sleeper cells could soon be activated there. Authorities in Indonesia acknowledged last month that there were ties between al-Qaeda and local Islamic groups on the island of Sulawesi. However officials have publicly denied the existence of militant training camps.
But according to unnamed officials quoted in the Washington Post report, there was a camp on the island last year, hidden in thick jungle near the port city of Poso.
So glad they broke this up before it was too late.
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Well, People for the American Way, well, leftist bastards from the ACLU --- where would we be now if we couldn't detain these people?