Terror group plotted to attack US navy base

The South-east Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah plotted an attack on an American naval base in Singapore, a court heard today.

Mas Selamat Kastari, the alleged head of the group in the city-state, was testifying in Jakarta at the trial of Abu Bakara Bashir, a Muslim cleric who Indonesian authorities say is the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah.

“When I was in Singapore, there was a plan to destroy the US base in Singapore,” he said. “We just made plans but never implemented them.”

“The idea to destroy the base came from Hambali,” Kastari said, referring to the terrorist group’s fugitive operations commander.

Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for the October 12 nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 26 British tourists.

Kastari did not say when the plan to target the US navy in Singapore was hatched, but officials in the city-state have said Jemaah Islamiyah agents targeted American ships there in 2001.

Singapore’s Changi Naval Base frequently hosts US warships passing through to the Persian Gulf.

The country is a close Washington ally.