|
Singapore beefs up security in face of mounting terror threat
[Business Times] The threat of a terrorist attack in Singapore is at its "highest level" of late as a result of the rise of the Daesh militant group, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam warned on Friday. He said the danger is even greater than in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the US and the arrest of Jemaah Islamiyah members here that year, and added that it was not a question of if, but when, an attack will take place.Speaking to Home Team officers at an annual closed-door forum, he outlined a number of new initiatives to counter the terror threat, including the launching of a new national movement called SG Secure. Shanmugam warned that the rise of Daesh has meant the threat has "increased significantly" to the point that it has morphed into a "large powerful monster". "It is now a qualitatively different (and) much more dangerous threat. ISIS presents a far graver threat than (Al-Qaeda) or its affiliated entities ever did," he told his audience. Shanmugam spoke of Daesh's intention to establish a caliphate in the region. As he mapped out a grim picture of the terror situation in Southeast Asia, he called Singapore a "prime target", with four possible types of threats: Attacks planned just outside Singapore, attacks involving weapons smuggled by Singaporeans or foreign militants, so-called "lone wolf" attacks by self-radicalized people, as well as those by foreign workers in Singapore who have become radicalized. Posted by: ryuge 2016-03-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=449415 |