Terrorist Cell Busted In Kuwait - Arrested Four Citizens

The Ministry of Interior arrested four Kuwaitis for their involvement in a ‘terrorist’ network connected to Islamic State yesterday. A fifth citizen, also a member of the group, was recently killed in Iraq.

The arrests come a little over a month since Islamic State militants carried out the first ever suicide bombing of a mosque in Kuwait. Twenty-six-people were killed in the June 26 bombing of the Imam Al-Sadiq mosque in Kuwait City, another 227 were injured.

Security authorities have “taken a preemptive move uncovering a cell of the terrorist organization,” the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), comprising five Kuwaitis, the Ministry of Interior announced yesterday in a statement published by state news agency, KUNA.

All of the men arrested confessed to receiving training and indoctrination in “the terrorist organization, its deviating thoughts, in addition to advanced training on using arms before taking in combat action in Syria and Iraq,” the Interior Ministry said in an official statement.

Authorities also named the suspects: Mubarak Malfi, born in 1986, killed in a terrorist operation in Iraq; Fahad Hamad, born in 1990. Security personnel found “takfiri books, contents of which urge for fighting and carrying out terrorist acts,” in addition to flag of the terrorist organization, Islamic State in Hamad’s house. “Takfiri” is an Arabic word that indicates rejection of religious beliefs of the same sect or another.

The MOI identified the other members of the uncovered cell: Mohammad Hamad, born in 1986. He had joined the organization in Mosul and had taken part in combat and Faleh Nasser, born in 1982.

The latter had also joined the organization in Mosul and had participated in combat, Mohammad Falah, born in 1990, who had facilitated the others’ travel to Iraq to take part in terrorist operations. The ministry vowed that it would spare no effort in clamping down, firmly, on any person who may try to undermine the homeland’s security.

Pre-emptive precautions will be in force against any terrorist acts and terrorists will be brought to justice. The detainees were referred to the general prosecution, under the state felony case, number 47/2015. An interior ministry source told Reuters the individuals named in Thursday’s statement were not connected to the June 26 attack, which aimed to enflame sectarian tensions between Shiites and Sunnis in Kuwait.

Around 30 percent of Kuwait’s 1.4 million citizens are Shiites and the mosque targeted on June 26 was a Shiite mosque. Twenty-nine suspects have been arrested and charged in that case, the authorities reportedly seeking the death penalty for 11 of them.

The trial is scheduled to begin August 4. Islamic State, whose Sunni jihadist forces have seized large tracts of eastern Syria and northern Iraq, have claimed responsibility for several attacks against Shiites, including two mosque bombings in Saudi Arabia in May. (Material used from the wires in this report).

By Jamie Etheridge

Source - Kuwait Times