Kuwait Times

Published Date: August 12, 2009
By Jamie Etheridge and Ahmed Saeid, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Kuwait thwarted a terror attack against US and Kuwaiti facilities, arresting six suspected terrorists. "State security has uncovered a terrorist network of six citizens connected with Al-Qaeda who planned to bomb Camp Arifjan, the state security building and other important facilities," the Interior Ministry said in a statement yesterday to the press. The plotters allegedly planned to launch attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, which will begin in Kuwait around August 21.

Kuwait security authorities received information from Bahraini authorities about a terrorist cell in Kuwait working with another sleeper cell in Bahrain, reported Al-Jarida yesterday. The initials of five of the arrested men were reported as: M.A.K., Y.K., A.Q., M.A. and A.Q. "Thank God for the arrests and we ask Allah to save our country from any harm," said MP Faisal Al-Muslim.

In Washington, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell applauded the Kuwaiti government action and said it looked like an attack on US interests had been imminent. "I can just tell you at this point, with what little information I have, that - that it does, indeed, look as though this group was attempting to target US forces," Morrell said. "I don't think it is clear at this point that Camp Arifjan was necessarily where they were plotting their attack, but clearly US forces were among those they wanted to h
it, based upon our initial assessment.

A day prior to the announcement from the Ministry of Interior, the US Embassy in Kuwait issued a Warden's Notice updating "on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against American citizens and interests throughout the world.

Kuwait has seen little extremist activity recently but has had problems with terrorism in the past. In January 2005, Kuwait security forces clashed with Al-Qaeda linked militants in a shootout in Maidan Hawally and then a few days later during a raid on a militant hideout in Umm Al Haiman. The militants were allegedly plotting to blow up an apartment tower where many Americans live as well as other US and Kuwaiti government offices and bases. In 2007, four members of the Peninsula Lion's Brigade involved
in the clashes were sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti court. The sentences were later commuted.

Analysts argue that the arrests do not indicate a rise of extremism in Kuwait. "I think this is an isolated incident," said Gen Sabr Al-Suwaidan (rt), a Kuwaiti military analyst. "We have seen a drop of terrorist activity to almost zero. Once or twice security forces catch someone who has guns or is involved with gun smuggling but they are trying to make money - it's not ideological...But this will be a wakeup call for Kuwaiti security.

Instead the cell may have been looking for publicity or to raise their profile within Al-Qaeda. "Those people are not looking for mass destruction but a kind of propaganda. If you go blow yourself up at the gate of Camp Arifjan. All the media will react but there won't be many casualties, maybe a few people killed," pointed out Gen Al-Suwaidan.

There are two different explanations for what happened, but they are both connected to Al-Qaeda. The first version is that Al-Qaeda is suffering from pressure inside Iraq and Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and also inside Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that's why they wanted to let off steam by conducting an operation inside Kuwait, and that explains why their targets are very high profile on this mission," said Sami Al-Faraj, an analyst with the Strategic Studies Center in Kuwait.

The other explanation is perhaps because Al-Qaeda became a decentralized organization, and every cell is working on its own, and they have the freedom to choose their targets and also the time of the mission, and because people in the middle class of Al-Qaeda are trying to prove themselves in the organization in order to grow in the hierarchy of Al-Qaeda system, so this maybe an attempt of separate Al-Qaeda cell, or even new Al-Qaeda members to prove themselves to their leaders," Al-Faraj explained.

The suspects have been referred to the Public Prosecution. (Velina Nacheva, Hussain Al-Qatari and news agencies contributed to this report)