AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
KUALA LUMPUR: Underwater mines could be used by terrorists in an easy and cheap way of destroying ships and disrupting trade, Malaysia's armed forces chief said according to a report Wednesday.
Admiral Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Nor said that crude underwater mines could be rigged up as simply as packing explosives in an oil drum, while more sophisticated devices had trigger devices.
“Countering terrorist mines is very difficult as the Asia Pacific area is large in size,” he said according to The Star newspaper.
“But we have strengthened our ability to counter this threat by conducting counter-measure exercises and sharing expertise with other countries.”
The Malacca Strait, which runs alongside peninsular Malaysia, is one of the world's most important waterways, with 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of the globe's trade passing through it each year.
The strait, shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, is notoriously vulnerable to pirate attacks and governments in the region also fear it could be a target for terrorists.
