ABU DHABI Ñ Kuwait has announced the capture of another insurgency
cell that targeted U.S. troops in the sheikdom.
Officials said the suspects were aligned with Al Qaida and comprised a
sleeper cell for the organization. They said at least one of the suspects
underwent training in an Al Qaida camp in Afghanistan.
The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry identified the suspects as Ahmed Mutlaq Al
Mutairi, 29, Abdullah Mutlaq Al Mutairi, 32, Musaed Horan Al Enezi, 28, Middle East Newsline reported.
The suspects were accused of coordinating with a five-member Al Qaida
cell to carry out a series of attacks on U.S. troops and military interests,
officials said.
They said the attacks were meant to disrupt U.S. troop
deployment along the northern border with Iraq.
"They were planning to kill as many U.S. soldiers as possible," a
Kuwaiti security source said.
Ahmed Al Mutairi was said to have trained in Afghanistan. His brother,
Abdullah, is a former member of the Kuwaiti military.
The statement said authorities found weapons and ammunition in
possession of the cell. Two U.S. nationals, one of them a soldier, have been
killed in attacks linked to Al Qaida since October. There are more than
70,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait.
"The three Kuwaitis were preparing plans to carry out terrorist attacks
against American forces in the country," the statement, carried by the
official Kuwaiti news agency, said.
On Tuesday, Kuwait imposed a higher level of alert to prepare for the
prospect of a war against Iraq. Authorities set the alert at Level 3, just
short of the outbreak of war.
