Six suspects were arrested in a raid Friday morning on Batam, an Indonesian island near Singapore, police said.
The suspects were allegedly planning a rocket attack on the Marina Bay Sands resort, a major hotel, retail and entertainment hub in Singapore, Indonesian National Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar told CNN
“We got initial information through their conversation on social media and then tracked their location,” Amar said. Indonesia’s special anti-terror task force carried out the raid.
Local terror group suspected
Gen. Tito Karnavian, chief of the Indonesian National Police, said the suspects belong to a local terror group called Katibah Gigih Rahmat, which is suspected of helping Indonesians travel to Syria to join ISIS.
They were ordered to attack Singapore by Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian now believed to be in Syria, Amar said. He added police believe Naim is sending money from Syria to Katibah Gigih Rahmat to finance radicalism and terror activities in Indonesia.
Katibah Gigih Rahmat’s suspected leader, Gigih Rahmat Dewa, was among the six arrested Friday.
‘We were serious about the threats’
“This does not come as a surprise. I have spoken several times, about plans being made in places just outside Singapore, to target Singapore — we were serious about the threats,” Singaporean Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said. “We were aware of the plans being made to attack us with rockets.”
Singaporean police and other security agencies have stepped up measures both inside the city-state and at its borders, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement, urging the public to remain vigilant.
Authorities also have been tracking terror threats planned within Singapore to be carried out in other countries. In May, Singaporean police arrested eight Bangladeshi men accused of plotting terror attacks in Bangladesh.