The suspects were on Batam Island, a few kilometres from Marina Bay, a tourist area in the city-state. According to Indonesian sources, the men belong to a jihadist group linked to Jakarta bombers.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Indonesian police arrested six men who were preparing a terrorist attack in Singapore.
The suspects were on Batam Island, on the Singapore Strait, from where they planned to strike at Marina Bay, a tourist area in the city-state. A 20-30-minute ferry ride links Batam to Singapore.
The authorities suspect the six men wanted to launch a rocket across the strait to strike from a distance.
Karnavian, an Indonesian police general and former commander of Densus 88, an Indonesian Special Forces counter-terrorism squad, said that the six men were planning to be smuggled into Singapore.
Those arrested are thought to be members of Katibah Gigih Rahmat, a fundamentalist group known to have helped some jihadists go to Syria to fight for the Islamic state group.
Karnavian also said that the group's leader, Gigih Rahmat Dewa, had frequent contact with Bahrun Naim, chief suspect in last January’s attacks in Jakarta now fighting in Syria.
Police suspect Dewa to be directly involved with Nur Rohman, who blew himself up on 6 June near a police station in Surakarta.