Report: Indonesia gang planned Singapore rocket attack

By Kirsten Han

SINGAPORE (AA) – Singapore expressed gratitude Friday to Indonesian authorities for an international cooperation that led to the arrest of a terror gang who planned a rocket attack on the island state from nearby Indonesia.

Local press reported that six suspected militants were planning to attack Singapore by launching a rocket from the Indonesian island of Batam to Marina Bay near Singapore's central business district.

Indonesian police said that they had arrested the group's leader, Gigih Rahmat Dewa, in an early hours-long raid, local newspaper The Straits Times reported.

According to a neighbor, a bomb was among items seized by law enforcement officers.

In a statement to the press, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that "it is aware that plans were being made by the six terror suspects arrested by the Indonesian Authorities", and said that Singaporean security agencies had been coordinating with their Indonesian counterparts since the discovery of the attack plot.

The ministry added that the police and other security agencies have stepped up inland and border security measures in response to the incident.

"This does not come as a surprise," said Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in a statement.

"I have spoken several times, about plans being made in places just outside Singapore, to target Singapore -- we were serious about the threats."

Shanmugam will be in Indonesia next week for a security conference attended by ministers from the region.