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| Arabia |
| Kuwait targeted by al-Qaeda |
| 2004-07-24 |
| My guess is that these are those sleepers who got honked awhile back ... A group of suspected al Qaeda supporters arrested in Kuwait for recruiting militants to attack U.S. troops in Iraq also planned to strike targets in Kuwait, an Interior Ministry official said on Saturday. "The maps found with them revealed that they also had plans to attack foreign troops in Kuwait, as well as Iraq," the official told Reuters. Kuwait said on Saturday at least 12 suspected al Qaeda supporters had been arrested since last week and authorities were searching for two more on suspicion of indoctrinating young people in radical Islamist ideology and helping them enter Iraq via Syria to fight foreign troops. The official said police had arrested at least three of the 12 men after interrogating four Kuwaiti youths recently handed over by Syria. Two of them managed to enter Iraq and leave earlier, and the other two were arrested while attempting to infiltrate Iraq, he added. The Interior Ministry identified Kuwaiti nationals Khaled Abdullah al-Dossari and Ahmed Mohamed al-Mutairi as suspected al Qaeda supporters on the run. It called on citizens and residents to contact the ministry with any information on the two men. All suspects had been referred to the Public Prosecution where they would be further questioned, the official said. The father of another Kuwaiti caught in Iraq, 16-year-old Abdul Rahman Mubarak al-Bathaly, said on Saturday his son would be handed over to Kuwait by the Red Cross within days. "My son called me yesterday and told me that he has been released from Abu Ghraib (prison), and that he will be returning home within a few days," said Mubarak al-Bathaly, adding his son had illegally entered Iraq via Syria in January. He said his son was accused only of illegally entering Iraq and was not connected with the group in Kuwait. Kuwait has tightened security after a surge in violence in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It has also launched a crackdown on Islamists opposed to the presence of U.S. forces, which used Kuwait as a launchpad for last year’s war against Iraq. The official also said authorities were investigating any possible presence of terror networks in Kuwait. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |