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At least 2 Singaporeans in fight for ISIS: official
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AT least two known Singaporean citizens have gone to Syria to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), though their exact whereabouts are unknown, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said today.
Teo told the parliament that the authorities in Singapore will continue to investigate anyone who expresses support for terrorism or an interest to pursue violence.
He said the escalation of violence in Syria and Iraq over the last three months and the expansion of the Islamic State threat beyond the two countries' borders have raised the threat posed to Singapore.
The ISIS continues to actively recruit foreign fighters including Southeast Asians, and its brutality is not confined to beheadings of Westerners, but also to the killing of other Muslims and minority communities in Syria and Iraq, he said.
"We have no information currently of any specific threat to us resulting directly from beheadings of IS and the anti-IS strikes," he said. "However, our assessment remains that the expansion of the IS threat beyond Syria and Iraq has raised the threat not only to countries who are part of the US-led coalition but also to Singapore."
Even if Singapore is not itself a target, foreign interest in Singapore may be targeted, he said, citing the example of how al- Qaida, working with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), planned to bomb the US and other embassies here in 2002.
There are also reports that some Malaysians and Indonesians who have fought for ISIS have formed a militant group called Katibah Nusantara Lid Daulah Islamiyyah, or Malay Archipelago Unit for the ISIS.
"If this group expands in Southeast Asia, it will pose a regional terrorism threat like the JI terrorist network, which had also aimed to set up a Southeast Asian Islamic Archipelago that encompassed Singapore, through the use of violence and terrorism," Teo said.
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