SINGAPORE, Jan 5: Singapore has arrested 15 suspected terrorists, including several who had been trained in al Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan, the government said on Saturday.

The arrests were made between December 9 and 24 under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the government said. Singapore’s ISA allows for detention without trial.

“Several of those arrested had been to Afghanistan where they received short periods of training in al Qaeda camps,” the Singapore government said in a statement.

The government said searches of the homes and offices of the suspects yielded detailed information on bomb construction, photographs and video footage of target surveillance, al Qaeda linked material, and tampered passports and forged immigration stamps.

Announcement of the Singapore arrests comes a day after Malaysia revealed the arrest over the past month of 13 suspected Islamic subversives with possible links to Zacarias Moussaoui, the Frenchman indicted in the United States in connection with the September 11 air attacks on New York and Washington.

Thirteen of those arrested in Singapore are members of a “clandestine organisation which calls itself Jemaah Islamiah”, the Singapore government said.

“The activities of this group included fund collection for terrorist groups, active surveillance of establishments in Singapore targeted for terrorist bombing, as well as attempts to procure materials for bomb construction, including large quantities of ammonium nitrate.”

The remaining two men arrested were not confirmed to belong to the group and some others had fled the country, it added.

“Key figures of the Jemaah Islamiah, including several of those presently in custody, have links to militant elements in Malaysia and Indonesia,” the government said.—Reuters