Extremist threat in Southeast Asia growing

The threat that violent extremist groups pose to Southeast Asia is growing each year as they become more organised and focused in their aims, Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Friday.

Ng was speaking to reporters following a meeting of Southeast Asia defense ministers with US Defense Secretary Ash Carter in Hawaii, where the defense chiefs devoted a major chunk of time to discussing the threat from Islamic State and similar groups.

Over 1,000 Southeast Asians have flocked to join Islamic State's self-declared "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria, Ng said.

"Every year we meet, the situation and threat from extremist terrorism rises," Ng said. "Compared to, say, a year or even two years ago, they're more organised... they're more networked, they're more clear in their articulation of what they want to achieve."

Security officials said in June that Southeast Asian militants who claim to be fighting for Islamic State said they had chosen one of the most wanted men in the Philippines to head a regional faction of the group.

Authorities in the region have been on heightened alert since Islamic State claimed an attack in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in January in which eight people were killed, including four of the attackers.

Ng cited a recent plot in which an Indonesian cell coordinated by an Islamic State member in Syria had planned to shoot up hotels in Singapore's Marina Bay area. The plot was foiled by Indonesian authorities, he said.

Reuters