Singapore Reveals Suspects' Plans

Singapore said Thursday the 21 terror suspects it arrested planned to attack water pipelines, chemical factories, the Defense Ministry and a U.S. Navy ship on orders from an Indonesian militant thought linked to al Qaeda.

An Indonesian Muslim cleric, Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, is suspected of giving the orders, said Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry. Hambali, whose whereabouts are unknown, is thought to be a leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional group believed linked with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and seeking an Islamic state linking Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines.

Meanwhile, U.S. special forces have captured seven men suspected of being Taliban fighters and truckloads of weapons in an operation near the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said on Thursday.

The arms found at Orgun-e, about 100 miles south of Kabul on Wednesday filled three trucks and included rockets, mines and two anti-aircraft guns, U.S. military spokesman Colonel Roger King said. He called it "a significant haul."

"The anti-aircraft weapons are probably particularly significant in that we do a lot of movement by air," King said from Bagram Air Base, just north of Kabul, headquarters of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The age of the weapons ran the gamut from new to a World War II-era German anti-tank weapon.

Singapore relies on Malaysia for most of its water supply, which is delivered by pipeline, and the targets were allegedly chosen for their potential to create tensions between the neighboring countries, the ministry, which is responsible for the city-state's security, said in a statement.

"The attacks on key Singapore installations would be portrayed as acts of aggression by the Malaysian government, thereby creating animosity and distress," the statement said.

The ministry also said an unnamed American vessel at the Changi Naval Base was targeted late last year, as well as a bar that the group believed was popular with American military service personnel.

The U.S. Navy has a logistics unit in Singapore and warships going to and from Afghanistan have been re-supplied in the city-state. Last year, Singapore opened a new naval facility specially designed to accommodate U.S. aircraft carriers.

American officials said that about 100 U.S. navy ships transit through Singapore every year but declined to comment on the alleged terror threat.

"We remain confident in the safety and security provided by the government of Singapore," said Leslie Hull-Ryde, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy in Singapore.

In other developments:

• Mine sweepers say they have almost finished clearing southern Afghanistan of unexploded cluster bombs dropped by U.S. forces, a milestone in efforts to clear explosives from the world's most heavily mined nation.

  U.N.-backed teams have cleared 42 of 46 sites where 155 cluster bombs were dropped during the U.S. air strike campaign last year. They expect to sweep at least one remaining site next week.

• Pakistan's interior minister said on Thursday seven Islamic militants arrested in the port city of Karachi this week were suspects in a car bombing that killed 12 Pakistanis outside the U.S. consulate in June.
• Moinuddin Haider, speaking in the capital Islamabad, told reporters another militant arrested after a shootout in Karachi last week was a suspect in the murder of American reporter Daniel Pearl, but there was no concrete evidence.