Singapore has arrested two young men it believes were being groomed as future leaders of the regional terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah.
Officials say the pair, aged 20 and 21, are part of the same Pakistani-based cell that was broken up in September with the arrests of 13 Malaysians and six Indonesians. The two Singaporeans were arrested after returning home in late October.
The two are identified as Muhammad Arif bin Naharudin and Muhammad Amin Mohamed Yunus. Officials say they were receiving training in urban warfare, surveillance and explosives at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. Both were students at an Islamic school in neighboring Malaysia.
Meanwhile, authorities in Jakarta are racing against time to prove that a group of Indonesian students returned from Pakistan had links to terrorism.
Two of the original six were released for lack of evidence. Under Indonesian law, authorities must free the other four by Friday unless a case against them can be established.
Officials believe they have links to Hambali -- the alleged terrorist mastermind now in U.S. custody. Among the four is Hambali's younger brother, Rusman Gunawan.
Malaysian police still have nine students in custody. All are being held under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which allows for lengthy detention without trial.