Authorities in Singapore arrested a suspected Muslim terror group member who once trained with militants in Afghanistan, the government said.
Rijal Yadri Jumari, a 27-year-old Singaporean, was arrested last month for suspected involvement with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Home Affairs Ministry said on Sunday in a statement posted on its Web site.
The group is a loose network of Muslim militants in Southeast Asia.
Rijal's arrest was announced amid a nationwide manhunt for a top Muslim terror suspect who escaped a high-security Singapore prison nearly a month ago.
In Pakistan, Rijal joined JI's Al-Ghuraba cell, the ministry said. It did not say when.
"He was one of several students talent-spotted by the JI to be groomed to become a future leader in the JI organization," the statement said.
It said Rijal was sent to Afghanistan for terrorist training at an al-Qaeda camp in Kandahar in 2000.
While there he was trained in weapons handling, explosives, surveillance and guerrilla warfare -- and he allegedly met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a number of times, the statement said.
Rijal later went into hiding to evade Singapore authorities, the ministry said.
He was arrested with the help of "regional authorities" after Singapore's Internal Security Department discovered his whereabouts, the statement said. It did not say where he was arrested or give other details.
At the time of his arrest, Rijal was suspected of working with foreign JI operatives to discuss regrouping and reviving the network, the statement said.
He was arrested last month and detained on Thursday under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial.
The ministry also said that it released Anis Mohamad Mansor, another suspected Jemaah Islamiyah member detained in 2004.
"He had cooperated in investigations and had responded positively to rehabilitation, including religious counseling," it said.
Singapore was named an al-Qaeda target by alleged operative Khalid Sheikh Mohamed during a tribunal last year at the US military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Last month, the suspected local commander of the JI network, Mas Selamat Kastari -- suspected of once plotting to crash an airplane into Singapore's international airport -- slipped away from a detention facility.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not