Jemaah Islamiyah still a threat

SINGAPORE, March 29 (UPI) -- The Jemaah Islamiyah terror group is repositioning and rejuvenating itself with much of its network still operating, a Singapore official has warned.

"The JI has been knocked down but definitively not knocked out," Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said Tuesday in Singapore at the opening of an international conference on security.

The al-Qaida-linked terror group has been blamed for the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks, a blast at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott hotel in 2003, and a suicide car bombing at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta last September.

"Those JI terrorists who seek to mount operations are not using JI members but are leveraging on the support and resources of fraternal groups," Wong said.

Wong said the recent Valentine's Day attacks in Mindanao and Minla demonstrated "a high level of coordination involving a number of fraternal groups."

Wong pushed for the dismantling of terror training sites in Mindanao. "What may be occurring in these camps is that the previous segregation of JI and other groups, including local Filipino trainees, is no longer observed."

He also warned that if "external" terrorist groups establish strong links with southern Thailand's Islamic insurgency, "it will have serious ramifications for the entire region."