The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been running highly efficient and well-organised weapons factories in the Middle-East.
But would they be able to get rockets to their followers in Batam, Indonesia?
That’s one big question that came up yesterday after six men who are believed to be linked to ISIS were arrested by the Indonesian authorities for plotting to launch a rocket attack from Batam on targets in Singapore’s Marina Bay area.
The authorities in both countries have not given any clues as to the type of rocket the suspects were planning to use, and the Indonesian police said they have not managed to recover any weapons so far.
Nonetheless, the plot has raised concerns about the possibility of an attack on Singapore targets from a distance.
Singapore and Batam are less than 30km apart at the nearest point.
An investigation published by UK-based Conflict Armament Research this year said that ISIS has produced thousands of rockets and bombs in Fallujah, Iraq.
It is not known if the suspects have had any exposure to rocket-making, but they are from a terror cell called KGR@Katibah.
All of them worked at a factory except for one suspect, who is reportedly a bank executive.
If the suspects were constructing a homemade rocket, its accuracy would not be high, said Mr Collin Koh, a research fellow at the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Mr Koh told The New Paper: “However, those manufactured by military factories are more reliable, and there are such examples (of rockets) which can be fired in single shots.
“Otherwise, those (rockets) from multi-barrel tubes require more military training to operate.”
OTHER CASES
In the Gaza Strip conflict in the early 2000s, homemade rockets such as the fold-up Qassam-2 missile, which can be concealed and assembled within minutes, were fatal threats.
Developed by radical group Hamas, they have a limited range of about 8km and a payload of 9kg of TNT, reported Time in 2002.
Other short-range rockets capable of reaching Singapore from Indonesia would include the Grad (range 20km) and WS-1E (range 45km), reported Today.
These missiles, however, are not homemade and are manufactured in Iran and China respectively, meaning they would be more difficult to obtain for a small cell of budding terrorists.
This article was first published on August 6, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.
