The al-Qaeda-linked plot to attack a US military shuttle bus at Yishun MRT

One of the most serious events ever tied to Yishun is almost forgotten: a foiled terror plot by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the al-Qaeda-linked regional militant group, to attack a shuttle bus service at Yishun MRT station. The bus ferried United States military personnel and their families between the Sembawang Wharves and Yishun MRT. JI's reconnaissance of the site began as early as 1997, and around 1999 members filmed a surveillance videotape of Yishun MRT. In an extraordinary twist, that videotape — together with handwritten Arabic notes and sketch maps of Yishun — was later recovered by US forces from the rubble of a senior al-Qaeda leader's home in Afghanistan, and US officials informed Singapore's Internal Security Department of the find on 14 December 2001. The Yishun attack was part of a wider JI scheme of "at least six plans", including bombing the US, Israeli, Australian and British diplomatic missions in Singapore. The ISD arrested 13 to 15 JI members in December 2001 and detained more in 2002, thwarting the plot before any attack took place.