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Arabia

Kuwait says bomber was young Saudi man, detains driver

2015-06-29

[REUTERS] Kuwait on Sunday identified the jacket wallah behind its worst Lion of Islam attack as a young Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n man, and said it had detained the driver of the vehicle that took him to a Shi'ite Moslem mosque where he killed 27 people. The disclosure of the bomber's Saudi nationality is likely to focus the attention of authorities investigating Friday's suicide kaboom on ties between Islamists in the small Gulf state and those in its larger, more conservative neighbor. The interior ministry named the bomber as Fahd Suliman Abdul-Muhsen al-Qabaa and said he flew into Kuwait's airport at dawn on Friday, only hours before he detonated an explosives-laden vest at Kuwait City's Imam al-Sadeq mosque. It was not immediately known where Qabaa had arrived from, but the timing of his arrival suggests he had a network already in place in Kuwait. The ministry said it was searching for more partners and aides in this "despicable crime", adding Qabaa had been born in 1992, putting him in his early 20s. Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... 's Saudi Arabian arm grabbed credit for the attack on the mosque, where 2,000 worshippers were praying at the time. It was one of three attacks on three continents that day apparently linked to hardline Islamists. The attack was the most significant act of Sunni Lion of Islam violence in Kuwait since 2005, when an al-Qaeda linked group calling itself the Peninsula Lions clashed with security forces in the streets of Kuwait City. Nine Islamists and four security force members were killed in the shootouts. The bombing has sharply heightened regional security concerns because Islamic State appears to be making good on its threat to step up attacks in the holy fasting month of Ramadan. The group, seeking to expand from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, says its priority target is the Arabian peninsula and in particular Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holiest places, from where it plans to expel Shi'ite Moslems. Islamic State subscribes to a puritanical school of Sunni Islam that considers Shi'ites as heretics. The ministry said the driver of the Japanese-made car, who left the mosque immediately after Friday's bombing, was an illegal resident named Abdul-Rahman Sabah Aidan. The phrasing of its statement suggests Aidan is belongs to the "Bidoon", a large underclass in Kuwait lacking citizenship and access to jobs.

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Arabia

Kuwait commutes four Qaeda death sentences

2007-06-20

Kuwait’s highest court commuted on Tuesday death sentences passed on four militants suspected of links to Al Qaeda to life imprisonment. A court ruling read out to reporters also confirmed life sentences for two other militants. Is this an EU-style 'life sentence', as in about, oh, eight years? The four militants had appealed against death sentences handed down by a criminal court in 2005 for bloody attacks in the Gulf Arab state. An appeals’ court had confirmed the death sentences in 2006. The militants had been charged for their part in clashes with police in 2005 in which four security officers and nine militants were killed. Charges against the defendants had also included belonging to an “extremist” group, calling for attacks on state facilities, and trying to kill Kuwaiti security officers as well as members of “friendly forces” in the country, which hosts thousands of US troops. The defendants were among 37 Islamists on trial as members of the group calling itself Peninsula Lions, which is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda.

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Arabia

Kuwaiti court reopens trial of 36 Qaeda suspects

2006-09-19

KUWAIT CITY - The Kuwaiti appeals court on Monday reopened the trial of 36 alleged Al Qaeda militants who fought bloody gunbattles with police last year. The court had been expected to issue verdicts against the suspects, six of whom were condemned to death by the lower court in December, but presiding judge Ibrahim Al Obeid allowed lawyers to file arguments. The lawyers alleged investigations conducted by the public prosecution were illegal and should be scrapped by the court, and one of them even called on the judge to reject rulings by the lower court. The judge in May referred the case to the constitutional court to decide whether the conspiracy to commit a criminal act under Kuwaiti law applied to the defendants in the case. The court ruled in July that an article of the penal code was in line with the constitution and asked the appeals court to continue with the trial. "Get on with it and stop stalling!" Judge Obeid on Monday agreed to a request by lawyers to summon the investigating officer in the case for cross-examination. The defendants are accused of being members of the Al Qaeda-linked ‘Peninsula Lions Brigades’ that was allegedly behind deadly gunfights.

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Arabia

Suspected Al Qaeda militant arrested in Kuwait

2006-08-23

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti security forces have arrested a suspected Islamist militant who had been sentenced in absentia on charges of affiliation to a group linked to Al-Qaeda and involved in clashes with police, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Hamad Nawaf al-Harbi, one of eight of the 37-member group who remained at large, was arrested Monday in Al-Farwaniya, five kilometers (three miles) south of Kuwait City, they quoted an interior ministry statement as saying. “The questioning of Harbi should lead to the arrest of the seven others” still on the run, the statement said. Harbi was one of 10 members of the “Peninsula Lions Brigades” who were sentenced in absentia last December. He was handed a seven-year jail term and was considered the third most wanted fugitive in the case. Thirty-seven suspected militants were tried on charges of membership in the group, which was behind deadly gunfights with police in January 2005. Eight militants were killed in the clashes along with four police officers and two civilians.

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Arabia

Al Qadeda fugitive surrenders in Kuwait

2006-03-09

KUWAIT - A man sentenced to 10 years in jail in absentia in Kuwait for belonging to Al Qadeda has handed himself in to authorities, security sources said on Thursday. They named the fugitive as Meshal Al Shimmari, sentenced to 10 years in jail in December for belonging to the Al Qadeda-linked Peninsula Lions group, which staged several bloody attacks in Kuwait last year. Shimmari, 35, showed up at the Court of Appeals on Wednesday, the sources said. A former Kuwaiti army conscript, he is one of several stateless Arabs who were part of a group of 37 Islamists tried for belonging to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qadeda in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. "former Kuwaiti army conscript, he is one of several stateless Arabs" Is that new-speak for a Kuwaiti of Palestinian desent, or do they have roaming press-gangs rounding stray people up and forcing them into the Army? The sources said Shimmari was a low-level member of the Peninsula Lions group, which Kuwaiti authorities said carried out four shootouts in January 2005, which killed nine Islamists and four members of the security forces. Six members of the group were sentenced to death at the December trial for belonging to an “extremist” group, calling for attacks on state facilities and trying to kill Kuwaiti security forces and foreign forces in the country. Kuwait, which hosts up to 30,000 US troops, has cracked down on Islamists opposing the foreign military presence there. Diplomats say radical Islam is taking hold among Kuwaiti youth.

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Arabia

Kuwait sentences 'al-Qaeda' group: 6 to Hang, 30 to Prison, 7 Walk

2005-12-27

Six suspected militants from a group linked to al-Qaeda have been sentenced to death by a court in Kuwait. The six were handed the sentence for their role in clashes with police in January which left several people dead. The court jailed some of the other alleged members of the group of more than 30, while seven were acquitted. Dozens of suspected Islamists opposed to the US presence in Kuwait have been held in 2005 and accused of planning attacks on western targets. Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for more suspected militants of the group - which calls itself the Peninsula Lions Brigade - for several shootouts with police in January. They had also said the group plotted to stage suicide attacks in Kuwait and planned a coup. Defence lawyers have said their clients were forced to make confessions after being tortured. Some 20 alleged members of the group - mostly Kuwaiti nationals - received jail terms of between four months and 15 years, while one was sentenced to life in prison. Among those on trial were several foreign nationals. The verdict was read out in the absence of all the accused, with lawyers and reporters being the only people present in the court, according to the AFP news agency. Kuwait is a major oil producer and US ally in the Gulf. A military base in the territory serves as a logistics centre for US troops operating in neighbouring Iraq. "You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its wavin’ green grass and heaps of sweet-smellin’ flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmerin’ heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin’ brown and golden under a sinkin’ sun. And finally Winter, with its bitin’, whinin’ wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won’t be here to see any of ‘em; not by a damn sight, because it’s the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck til you’re dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a bitch." -- attributed to Judge Roy Bean

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Arabia

Australian held on terror charges

2005-09-20

AN Australian man charged with being a member of a terrorist group is due to reappear in a Kuwait court this weekend, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says. Sydney businessman Tallaal Adrey, 30, is accused of running guns across the border from Iraq and being involved in a terror group known as the Peninsula Lions, whose members were involved in a deadly gun battle with Kuwaiti police in January. A DFAT spokeswoman told AAP today Adrey and 33 other suspects were scheduled to reappear in a Kuwait court on Saturday. "The court has adjourned until September 24," the spokeswoman said. Adrey's lawyer Stephen Kenny said last month the charges were false and that his client had returned to Kuwait with his wife and three children to care for his sick elderly mother. He says Adrey's name was given to Kuwaiti police by one of the men arrested after the gunfight. Mr Kenny also said Adrey had gone on a hunger strike after accusing police of torturing him by pulling out his fingernails and shackling him to HIV-infected prisoners. The Kuwaiti judge has reportedly ordered the claims to be independently investigated. Parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs Bruce Billson said in July that consular officials had sought an investigation into Adrey's treatment after finding during a visit that he had fingernail damage. The Australian government has received conflicting advice about whether Adrey, who moved to Australia in 1997 and became a citizen, could receive the death penalty if convicted. The DFAT spokeswoman said consular officials had been told by a legal representative of Adrey that he would not face execution if found guilty on any or all of the charges. But the Australian consulate had also received advice from Kuwaiti authorities that they were seeking the death penalty for all of those charged. "We've had differing advice," the spokeswoman said. The January gunfight left four police dead and 10 other people wounded. Eight militants were killed in the fighting while Amer Khlaif al-Enezi, the alleged leader of the Peninsula Lions, which has al-Qaeda links, died in police detention eight days after his arrest.

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Arabia

Kuwait prosecution demands death penalty for 34 militants

2005-06-12

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's public prosecutor demanded Saturday the death penalty for 34 of 37 militants suspected of links to Al Qaeda and deadly clashes with police in January as their trial resumed here. The request for the death sentences against 34 militants, including a woman, came in the charge sheet. Most excellent. The charges include joining an illegal extremist group, the Peninsula Lions Brigade, reportedly linked with the Saudi Al-Haramain Brigades and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. They are also charged with carrying out terrorist acts, participating in the killing of several policemen and plotting to attack US forces and citizens in the oil-rich Gulf emirate. The trial, which opened on May 24, resumed amid tight security. One of 11 men initially tried in absentia, Nuri Mutashar Mudallal, turned himself in during the hearing. Mudallal, 30, is one of seven bidoon, or stateless Arabs, in the group. Twenty-five defendants are Kuwaitis, two Jordanians and one each from Saudi Arabia, Australia and Somalia, the case documents showed. Most of the suspects are accused of involvement in four gunbattles with Kuwaiti security forces in January that left four police officers dead and 10 others wounded. Eight militants were killed in the fighting, while the alleged leader of the group died in police detention eight days after his arrest on January 31.

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Arabia

Kuwait Seeks Death for Militants

2005-05-13

Kuwait's public prosecution has demanded the death penalty for 20 militants, allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda, who clashed with police in January, a newspaper reported yesterday. The prosecution also sought jail terms for 15 other suspects in a 2,000-page indictment submitted to Kuwaiti court authorities on Wednesday, Al-Qabas daily said, quoting unnamed legal sources. The criminal court is scheduled to open the trial of the group on May 24, the daily said. The 35 are allegedly members or sympathizers of a group named the "Peninsula Lions", which is reportedly connected to Al-Qaeda network. A majority of the suspects are Kuwaiti, but they also include Saudis, bidoons or stateless Arabs, and a Jordanian. Most of the suspects are accused of fighting four deadly gunbattles with Kuwaiti security forces in January that left four police officers dead and 10 others wounded. Eight militants were killed in the gunfights, while the alleged leader of the group, Amer Khlaif Al-Enezi, died in police detention eight days after his arrest on Jan. 31. The list of defendants includes cleric Sheikh Hamed Al-Ali, charged with issuing fatwas, or religious edicts, for the group. He has denied the charge.

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Arabia

Al-Dousari blames Kuwaiti government for violence

2005-02-14

A wanted Kuwaiti on Sunday blamed the government for a wave of violence in the pro-Western, oil-rich country, saying police wanted to stop militant Islamists from joining the anti-U.S. insurgency in Iraq. "We're just on a holy mission, and dese guyz are trying to stop us!" "If these young men were thinking of operating inside Kuwait, they would have done so a long time ago," Khaled al-Dosari told the London-based Islamic Media Centre in an interview, a copy of which was sent to Reuters. "The authorities wanted to arrest these young men after discovering they intended to go to Iraq for jihad (holy war). Now the authorities are liquidating them physically because there is no evidence against them to put them on trial." The Kuwaiti coppers have been vigilant, haven't they? My how the pigs begin to squeal. Kuwaiti officials have said al Qaeda-linked militants were involved in a series of shootouts with police in the Gulf Arab state since early January. Dosari is one of two main suspects still at large. Police say arrested militants confessed to planning suicide attacks against U.S. military and Western targets in Kuwait and say they have seized large weapons caches. Dosari said Islamic militants had no intention of launching a campaign against Kuwait, but promised revenge for the death of Amer al-Enezi, a man described by police as the spiritual leader of Kuwait militants, who died in custody last week. "The blood of Amer and his brothers is not worthless and we will enter into a blood feud ... Amer and his companions wanted to go to Iraq but authorities killed them on America's orders." "We will have Dire Revenge™!" Dosari denied the group had links to al Qaeda other than "a relationship of religion and blood" and disowned a media designation of the group as the "Peninsula Lions", under whose name statements appeared on Islamist Web sites. Except that "a relationship of religion and blood" is everything, isn't it.

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Arabia

Heart Failure ... MP Wants Answers

2005-02-11

The leader of a cell which allegedly plotted to kidnap US soldiers and other Westerners in Kuwait died in custody overnight of heart failure, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas added on its website that the suspect was being questioned by prosecutors Tuesday when he began to feel ill and was examined by doctors before he died. "Amer Khleif Al-Enezi died last night of heart failure," an Interior Ministry statement said. Enezi, 29, was detained on Jan 31 along with five of his supporters after a nine-hour firefight with security forces in which four gunmen were killed. Another man who was arrested later died of his wounds. The cell of militants allegedly plotted to kidnap US soldiers and other Westerners and film their murders and carry out attacks on US military convoys heading for Iraq. The London-based Islamic Observatory, which monitors the treatment of Islamist prisoners in the Middle East, charged that Enezi had died "under torture" and demanded an independent commission of inquiry. "Enezi was killed because he refused to give information" on wanted Islamists, it said in a statement received by AFP in Dubai. "We call on the authorities to authorise the setting up of a neutral commission of inquiry, made up of Kuwaiti MPs, lawyers' unions representatives and doctors to elucidate the circumstances and reasons for this killing." Kuwaiti Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabei, meanwhile, sent questions to Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah about the "circumstances surrounding the death" and whether Enezi's body was examined by forensics. The lawmaker, who demanded copies of the report on Enezi's death, also asked if security authorities had complied with the Constitution which bans the torturing of suspects during interrogation. Enezi was a mosque preacher in Jahra, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Kuwait City, until a few months ago when he was reportedly dismissed by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic affairs because of his "extremist views". Enezi's younger brother, Nasser, allegedly his right-hand man, was killed on Jan 30 in a gunbattle with security forces in Kuwait City during which a police officer was also killed. Security forces have fought gunbattles with al-Qaeda-linked Islamist gunmen, killing eight of them and capturing at least 14 others over the past month. Four police officers were also killed and 10 others wounded. According to press reports, Enezi confessed during interrogation that his group, the Peninsula Lions Brigade, was linked to the Saudi militant Al-Haramain Brigades, which has links with al-Qaeda. Enezi also reportedly confessed that his younger brother underwent explosives training in Iraq and that the group was planning attacks on US military convoys using Kuwait as a transit point to Iraq. Newspapers have reported that the ringleader told investigators the militants' aim was to set up an "Islamic emirate."

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Arabia

Kuwait: Saqr seeks prosecution of 'wasta' MPs

2005-02-05

MP Mohammad Al-Saqr has requested the government to disclose names of MPs who recently met senior officials in the Ministry of Interior with the offer to accept the surrender of fugitive radical Islamists on condition they will not be treated as suspects but state witnesses, reports Al-Seyassah daily. Al-Saqr says these MPs must be referred to the Public Prosecution after stripping them of their parliamentary immunity. Picked up on the Soddy holy men's trick, did they? Only it's not Soddy Arabia... Meanwhile, interrogations with Amer Khlaif Al-Enezi, believed to be the leader of the so-called Peninsula Lions revealed the two fugitives Mohsen Al-Fadhli and Khalid Al-Dosari played key roles in offering protection and logistic services to members of terrorist cells by providing them food, ammunition and moving them from place to place. Amer also admitted to issuing a fatwa to his followers on the need to kill security forces if they attempt to arrest them saying it justifies the death of their 'comrade' Fawaz Al-Otaibi who was shot by a member of the cell on Jan 10, 2005, during a Maidan Hawalli shootout between security forces and terrorists. A State Security policeman also died in the incident. Otaibi was friendly-fired? Hadn't heard that. Can't be too good for recruiting... Shaikh Farhan Obaid from the Islamic Heritage Revival Society described Amer Khlaif as a fanatic and a radical "who has misunderstood the concepts of Islam," reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. Obaid said the society with the approval of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs earlier held a seminar and the participants were surprised to learn Amer Khlaif and some of his followers were humiliating lecturers accusing them of cowardice for forbidding jihad in Iraq. He sounds like a real subtle kind of guy, doesn't he?

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