A local Arabic newspaper, quoting "well-informed sources", reported yesterday that the arrested soldiers "include a number of officers... and belong ideologically to the Al-Qaeda organization." Maps of US army locations in Kuwait were seized from the suspects. Kuwaiti military personnel detained last week for plotting attacks against US troops had planned to strike during joint exercises, a security source said on Tuesday. "The group had intentions to attack foreign forces during training with the Kuwaiti army."
US embassy spokesman Mark Stroh commented: "We are aware of the arrests and have been in close touch with the Kuwaiti authorities." A Kuwaiti security source said on Monday that at least 15 men, including four officers, had been questioned while four are still being detained. The arrests followed the extradition from Syria of a Kuwaiti heading for Iraq to fight American forces there.
Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper claimed the group was planning to attack US forces during the Moslem Id Al-Adha feast around January 21. Quoting security sources, it said members of the group had links with former servicemen who fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya and were dismissed from the Kuwaiti army. Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem is expecting a delegation from US President George W Bush on Friday, and this issue will probably be discussed.
Meanwhile, security sources said five Kuwaiti citizens including a member of the military might have found their way into Iraq to join militants fighting US forces there. US forces and civilians in Kuwait, which served as the main launching pad for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, have been the targets of a number of attacks, two of them fatal. A US marine was killed and another wounded during an attack by two Kuwaiti gunmen on Failaka Island, east of the capital, in October 2002. The two assailants were subsequently killed. About a month later, two US soldiers traveling on a highway south of Kuwait City in a civilian vehicle were wounded when a Kuwaiti policeman shot them at point blank range. A Kuwaiti was sentenced to life in prison for killing an American civilian contractor and wounding another in a highway ambush near a US army camp north of Kuwait City in January 2003. In December 2003, four US soldiers were slightly wounded by shots fired at their vehicles. The assailant was arrested.
Some 25,000 US soldiers are stationed in Kuwait. But the state is also the main transit point for coalition forces traveling to and from Iraq. British, Polish, Japanese, Hungarian and South Korean soldiers are based in desert camps in Kuwait for as long as a week on their way into and out of Iraq. In a December 16 audiotape, a voice attributed to terror chief Osama bin Laden called on his fighters to strike oil installations in the Gulf, as well as Iraq. Kuwait on Friday raised its state of alert almost to the maximum, boosting security around the country in the biggest show of force since the US-led Iraq war began in March 2003. Armored vehicles with mounted machine guns and heavily armed security units stood guard at almost every government building, key installations and potential Western targets. The US Embassy warned on December 15th that it had "credible information that terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in Kuwait in the near future.
Note: According to "a security source", the detained Kuwaiti military personnel planned to strike against US troops during joint exercises of foreign forces with the Kuwaiti army. Twenty-two members of a group accused of recruiting fighters for Iraq are currently on trial in Kuwait. Some of them had links with former servicemen who fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya and were dismissed from the Kuwaiti army. There is good reason to assume that the growing unrest and anti-American feeling in Kuwait has been encouraged by the large number of successful attacks against US forces and their allies carried out by Sunni Arabs in Iraq. In Kuwait, contrary to Iraq, Sunni Arabs constitute the large majority of the population.
Arab Times, Kuwait, 5 January 2005
Summary of report
In a December 16th audiotape, a voice attributed to terror chief Osama bin Laden called on his fighters to strike oil installations in the Gulf, as well as Iraq. Last Friday, Kuwait raised its state of alert almost to the maximum, boosting security around the country in the biggest show of force since March 2003. Armored vehicles with mounted machine-guns and heavily armed security units stood guard at almost all key installations, potential Western targets and government buildings. On December 15th 2004, the US Embassy warned it had "credible information that terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in the country in the near future.
