Singapore says Iran-backed militia figure sought entry

Singapore's Internal Security Department said Thursday that Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, identified by US prosecutors as a senior figure in an Iran-linked Iraqi armed group, applied three times for visas to visit Singapore in 2023 and 2024 but did not travel there.

The agency said Singapore would have denied him entry if he had tried. It said it believed Al-Saadi travelled elsewhere in Southeast Asia during that period and was working with intelligence partners to investigate his activities.

“We do not discount the possibility that Baqer's travel to this region could have been for terrorism purposes, and he could have set his sights on targeting Singapore, including US and Israeli/Jewish interests here,” the Internal Security Department said in its annual terrorism threat assessment.

The agency cited the case as an example of how conflicts in the Middle East had raised the threat of attacks against Singapore and Southeast Asia. It said activities by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its network of armed proxies had elevated terrorism risks beyond the Middle East.

US prosecutors identified Al-Saadi in charges filed in May as a senior figure in Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iraqi armed group designated by Washington as a terrorist organisation linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. US authorities said he directed and encouraged attacks on US and Israeli interests and urged the killing of Americans and Jews in retaliation for the war against Iran.

Al-Saadi was arrested in Turkey before being transferred to the United States, where he remains in custody awaiting trial. Kataeb Hezbollah has denied that he is a member of the group.