Terror threat to Singapore ‘remains high’, says home affairs report

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By Xinghui Kok

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -The terrorism threat to Singapore remains high, said its home affairs ministry in a report released on Tuesday, pointing to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “continued traction of radical narratives”.

While there was no current intelligence of an imminent attack against Singapore, the ministry said Islamic State uses propaganda to exploit the war in Gaza and local grievances to reinforce its narrative of armed violence.

Since the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel in October 2023, six Singaporeans have been found to support or were making preparations to take part in armed violence because of the conflict, said the report.

“Singapore and our interests continue to be viewed as attractive and legitimate targets by terrorist and extremist elements, due to our friendly relations with Western nations and Israel, the presence of iconic structures in Singapore, and our status as a secular and multicultural state,” it said.

The ministry said a key threat was online self-radicalisation, in a variety of extremist ideologies, especially of youths.

Since 2015, Singapore has used the Internal Security Act against 17 youth aged 20. Most recently it was used against two teenagers – one planned to shoot mosques, the other planned to join Islamic State.

The law allows suspects to be held for lengthy periods without trial, or to be given a restriction order limiting travel and internet access, among other conditions.

The threat assessment report also said artificial intelligence was emerging as a terrorism enabler for “generating and translating propaganda, producing convincing synthetic multimedia, creating personalised recruitment messages at scale, and planning and developing attacks”.

(Reporting by Xinghui Kok; Editing by Michael Perry)