[BOSTONHERALD] Indonesia's counter-terrorism police on Friday jugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! six suspected turbans who were allegedly planning to launch a rocket attack on downtown Singapore from nearby Batam island.
The Indonesian men were captured Friday on the Indonesian island, which is about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of Singapore, said National Police front man Maj. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar.
He said the arrests, which included the 31-year-old alleged leader of the group, highlight the continued threat posed by snuffies in Indonesia despite a sustained crackdown by authorities.
"We have strong indications that the six men were planning to launch a rocket at Singapore's Marina Bay from Batam," Amar said. He would not confirm whether an actual rocket had been found in the police raid.
Marina Bay is a busy area close to the heart of Singapore's downtown filled with office towers, waterside eateries and tourist attractions, including one of Asia's biggest casinos.
Amar said all the men claimed they were members of Katibah Gigih Rahmat, a little-known Death Eater group that helps Indonesian turbans travel to Syria. Police believe it has received funds from Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Syria.
Naim has been linked to a succession of poorly executed attacks in Indonesia, including a suicide kaboom outside police headquarters in the city of Solo last month that killed the bomber.
Singapore state media reported that local authorities were aware of the rocket plot.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement that Singapore's security agencies had coordinated with Indonesia to monitor the activities of the group and apprehend those involved.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Moslem nation, suffered a spate of deadly attacks by members of the Jemaah Islamiyah murderous Moslem network, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
[The Nation] Three people were injured in two separate shooting attacks in Pattani's Ma Yor and Khok Pho districts on Thursday night.
In the Ma-Yor attack, an official from the Narcotics Control Board and a local resident were injured in an ambush at 10:30 p.m. In the Khok Pho attack, which occurred around the same time, two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at ten young Muslim men having a meal at a house near the Nurudin mosque.
Police suspect that both incidents were part of the ongoing insurgency in southern Thailand.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
