SINGAPORE -- Two men have been held in Singapore over terror fears and a third man has had his movements restricted, authorities in the city-state said Thursday.
The three men were involved in "activities that posed a potential terrorist threat," the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
Two of the men, Muhammad Zamri Abdullah, 26, and Maksham Mohammad Shah, 26, were held in December under Singapore's Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial.
The third man, Mohammad Taufik Andjah Asmara, has had his movements limited under a restriction order.
Taufik learned radical ideas from Zamri and Maksham but later began "to gradually distance himself" from the two "and became less involved in their activities and discussions," the ministry said.
Singapore, a staunch US ally in the global "war on terror," in 2001 dismantled a local cell of the Southeast Asia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), planning to attack American and other foreign targets, and arrested several militants.
Government leaders have repeatedly warned that the wealthy city-state remains a top target for attack by militants.
In its statement Thursday, the ministry said Zamri picked up radical ideas through the Internet and had "gone overseas to join a 'mujahedeen network' so that he could wage armed jihad overseas and die a martyr."
In 2006, he "falsely claimed to be the Singapore representative of a foreign radical group" and recruited the two other men by making them take an oath of allegiance to him.
According to the ministry, Maksham learned how to build improvised explosive devices and travelled abroad to buy bomb-making materials.
The ministry also said it had freed five JI detainees, including members of a cell tasked with conducting reconnaissance of Western targets here, among them the US, Israeli, Australian and British embassies.
All five cooperated in investigations and "responded positively to rehabilitation, including religious counseling," the ministry said.
In addition, a Singaporean detained for his involvement with the Philippine Muslim separatist group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was also freed earlier this month.
Restriction orders on five other suspected members of the JI and the MILF where not renewed after they lapsed on January 9, the ministry added.
