SINGAPORE Singapore thwarts attack by self-radicalized 17-year-old ISIS youth

The Department of Homeland Security (ISD) announced that he had been arrested in August and confirmed a two-year sentence. The plan included attacking with scissors and a kitchen knife in the busy area near the Tampines West Community Club. It is the fourth attack that has been prevented since 2020.

Kuala Lumpur () – A 17-year-old boy from Singapore was arrested before carrying out an attack against non-Muslims. The teenager had planned it in an open area near the Tampines West Community Club using scissors or a kitchen knife. This is the fourth attempted terrorist attack that authorities have thwarted since 2020. News of the student’s arrest was only made public this month via The Straits Times. According to the newspaper, the arrest occurred in August under the Internal Security Act (ISA). In a press release on October 18, the Department of Homeland Security (ISD) said that a two-year detention had been ordered against the young man starting in September.

The investigation revealed that he had planned to travel to Syria to fight and had contacted a foreign contact online for advice on the trip and had even searched for flights. It was an important decision for a 17-year-old boy, one that would allow him to fight alongside ISIS “comrades” to establish an Islamic state in Syria. However, knowing that it would be difficult to travel to the Middle East without arousing his family’s suspicions, he decided to attack at home. He thought this was an easier plan to carry out and would fulfill his aspirations of being a martyr, the ISD explained to the Singapore media.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said thousands of people pass through the area he had chosen daily and it would be more crowded than usual during the September school holidays. “The suspect also knew that he would be intercepted by the police and had decided to die during the attack. He wanted to become a martyr and I would say he came very close. Fortunately the ISD arrested him in time,” he explained. According to the ISD, the young man encountered the teachings of foreign radical preachers in 2023, while searching for religious knowledge on the Internet, and embraced segregationist religious beliefs, such as the opinion that Muslims should not transmit greetings such as “Merry Christmas” to non-Muslims.

The teenager was inspired by ISIS propaganda, which glorified “suicide knife attacks.” “In addition to the scissors, he planned to use a kitchen knife from his home to stab people in the neck and kill or injure them,” Shanmugam added. According to the ISD, after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, extremist material from ISIS has increased considerably on the internet, such as that which led the young man to self-radicalize. He intended to join online groups that provided updates on ISIS activities and believed in using armed violence to establish an Islamic caliphate. In January he aspired to die as a martyr fighting for the terrorist organization. In May I had made a Bai’ahor oath of loyalty to ISIS.

The ISD said the young man was proud to know that his plan, if carried out successfully, would be the first terrorist attack in Singapore in decades. Previous cases thwarted by Singapore authorities include a 16-year-old who planned to attack Muslims with a machete in December 2020 and a 20-year-old angry over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who decided to stab Jews in 2021. in a synagogue. The latest involve an 18-year-old ISIS supporter who in December 2022 had planned to stab and kill non-believers in Islam by ambushing them in dark alleys; and, that same year and month, a 15-year-old boy planned to behead non-Muslims at popular tourist spots in the city.