Singapore ‘should carefully watch situation in Iraq’

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http://www.todayonline.com/world/spore-should-carefully-watch-situation-iraq

Singapore should carefully watch the conflict in Iraq, a problem that will be magnified if the country becomes destabilised and lawless, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday.

Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have seized parts of Iraq from the Shia-dominated government, and Syria has also lent resources to fight the rebels.

“You may think it’s a long way away but things in the Middle East have a way of sending out long-distance vibrations and reverberations that can affect us in South-east Asia.”

Last month, Malaysian Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki drove a military SUV filled with explosives into Iraq’s SWAT headquarters in Al Anbar, blowing himself up and killing 25 elite soldiers.

“These are very violent environments — people are fighting, killing one another, bombing, committing suicide bombings. If people go there and fight and after that they come back — what happens? They bring back their passions, their ideas, skills, maybe the equipment, and that’s big trouble... That’s going to be a problem. How do you find them beforehand, stop them and, if they come back, what can you do with them … I think it’s a problem that we in Singapore should watch carefully too.”