Singapore Within Missile Range

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30810, 23 July 1965, Page 11

Singapore Within Missile Range

(N Z P A.-Reuter—Copyright) SINGAPORE, July 22. Indonesia may start a psychological offensive soon against Singapore, a British military source said in Singapore yesterday. The source said there had been an increased amount of military activity on the Indonesian Rhio Islands, south of Singapore.

He was commenting on a report by the official Antara News Agency, which quoted an Indonesian Army officer as saying that guided missiles had been placed on the Rhio islands. The missiles were believed to have a range of 15 miles and warheads equivalent to 5001 b bombs. Indonesia has installed guided missiles just off Singapore which could turn both Malaya and Singapore into “a sea of fire” at the touch of a button, an Indonesian military leader said today.

that the missiles could hit targets precisely by using super-modern radar. The Rhio Islands lie about 12 miles off Singapore. Singapore could expect more infiltration and sabotage attempts in the near future, the source said. Indonesian military activities near Sarawak's First Division had quietened down |in the last month after a combined group of Indonesian infiltrators and local Chinese Communists launched a terrorist attack on civilians on June 27, he said. Seven civilians and two policemen were killed in the attack and the search for the terrorist band was still continuing in the area.

Colonel Sumedi, the commander of the 31st Regiment on the Rhio Islands, claimed