KUWAIT, 5 February 2005 — Kuwaiti security forces are hunting a number of key militant suspects after a recent spate of violence in the emirate, security sources said yesterday.
Confessions of captured militants revealed they were planning suicide attacks against US forces in Kuwait as well as Kuwait’s state security forces, the sources said.
Kuwaiti security killed five suspected Al-Qaeda militants and captured three, including the group’s leader, on Monday in the fourth such gun battle in the country last month.
State security officer Hamad Al-Samhan, one of three police, wounded in the clash, died in hospital yesterday, the sources said.
Kuwait’s leaders had vowed to finish off the militants behind the violence, mostly Kuwaitis with links to militants in neighboring Iraq.
The militants were being hunted based on information gathered from the interrogation of captured militants who include Amer Al-Enezi, the cell’s suspected leader who is believed to have Al-Qaeda links, they said.
The suspects being pursued include two senior militants — Kuwaitis Khaled Al-Dosari and Mohsen Al-Fadli — both sought for previous suspected involvement in extremist Islamist activity.
“The raids and searches continue,” one source told Reuters. “There are wanted people whose names are mentioned during the interrogations and they may have links to this network.”
He said militant suicide bombers had been planning to target US convoys and other US citizens in the country.
Used as the main launch pad for the 2003 war in Iraq, Kuwait hosts up to 30,000 US troops and is the key transit route for forces and civilians into Iraq. Some 12,500 US citizens are registered with the American embassy in Kuwait.
Among those brought in for questioning is Osama Al-Munawer, a Kuwaiti lawyer who represents the militants. Munawer is suspected of allegedly concealing Dosari’s whereabouts. “They believe he knows where Dosari is. He contacted him the day of the last clash (Monday),” one source said.
Munawer, who denied the charge, is due to appear before prosecutors today, they said.
On Tuesday, Kuwait’s Parliament unanimously passed a law giving police wide powers to search and seize illegal weapons.
An Interior Ministry decree bars veiled women from driving, to bar militants from masquerading as women in Islamic attire.
