Kuwait abuzz over spy cell revelation

Manama: Coverage of the spy cell-busting dominated the news in most Kuwaiti newspapers on Sunday amid reports that an Iranian embassy staff, Kuwaitis, Iranians, a Yemeni, a Lebanese and bidoon (stateless Arabs) were implicated in the ring.

Al Jareeda daily said that the seven suspects who were arrested included a major in the Interior Ministry, two Kuwaitis and one bidoon working in the army, two Kuwaiti civilians and one Iranian woman.

The cell was intercepted through an informant who was offered money by Iranian women to provide the cell with information and eventually join them. One of the Iranian women is being investigated for her role. The cell has contacts with an embassy staffer and Kuwait had started high-level contacts with Tehran about the cell, the paper said.

Security agencies found maps for military sites, the names of military officers, information about army weapons, around $250,000 (Dh919,500) in cash, computers and satellite communication devices, Al Jareeda said.

A report in Al Anba said that 12 people, including one Yemeni, one Iranian and one Lebanese, had been interrogated over the spy cell working for Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Most of the suspects live in Al Jahra and some of them are military men.

The security agencies had been tipped about the cell by a friendly state following recent warnings about the possible hijacking of a plane for terrorist attacks on oil facilities and military installations of a friendly country in the region, the paper said. The term "friendly country" is often used to refer to non-Arab states.

In Tehran, a senior Iranian military official yesterday denied reports that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been running a "spy cell" in Kuwait.

Lieutenant General Ramezan Sharif, head of the IRGC public relations department, said that the claim was part of a "project to create a phobia towards the IRGC" in the region, Fars news agency reported yesterday.

Hurdle

Sharif said that the "Zionist media and their regional supporters have stepped up efforts to weaken neighbouring countries' fondness for the Islamic Revolution by reporting on fake subjects."

"It has been proved to all that the IRGC is the front-runner in defending the Iranian national interests and because of this, Iran's enemies are trying to prevent progress [of the IRGC] by their false claims," Sharif was quoted as saying.

Al Qabas, the paper that broke the story on Saturday, said six Kuwaiti military men and two bidoon were implicated in the spy cell. Two Lebanese residents played a significant role in funding the cell and in securing contacts between its members and a liaison officer from the Revolutionary Guards, the paper said. The officer met some of the cell members in the Iranian cities of Isfahan and Mashad.

However, Al Siyassah said only three of the seven suspects arrested by the security agencies were Kuwaiti nationals and that there were three Iranians and one Yemeni. One of the Kuwaitis had dual Kuwaiti-Iranian citizenship, the paper said.

The suspects confessed they had instructions to gather information about vital Kuwaiti and US military sites and they often met on a Kuwaiti island.

The suspects said they had the support of Kuwaiti businessmen known for their affiliation with Iran and who funded the cell indirectly.

Another Kuwaiti daily said the cell was made up of one Kuwaiti, the son of a football player, and four Iranians. Three have been detailed and the other two are still on the run, the paper said, citing unnamed security sources.

The members were recruited by the intelligence section of the Iranian embassy to take pictures of US military sites and monitor troop movements for rewards varying between 5,000 Kuwaiti dinars (Dh63,650) and 10,000 dinars. The money was transferred through a liaison officer.

In their confessions, the men said the Iranian embassy had blackmailed them into producing reports about the US military presence in Kuwait, the paper said.