Kuwait arrests five "extremists", seizes arms

Kuwait said on Thursday it had arrested five Islamic militants and seized a large amount of weapons and ammunition, as thousands of U.S. troops train in the Gulf Arab state for a possible war on neighbouring Iraq.

An Interior Ministry statement said the suspects, described as "extremists", included four Kuwaitis and one non-Kuwaiti.

The men had confessed to weapons training, it said, and security forces had found guns, grenades and ammunition.

Kuwait has seen a string of attacks against Westerners, most of which have been blamed on Islamists and sympathisers of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network which Washington blames for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The statement said the suspects had obtained the arms during the 1990-91 Iraqi occupation and buried them. It named the five men and said they were aged between 33 and 38.

Kuwait announced last month the arrests of three Kuwaitis for allegedly planning attacks on U.S. troops.

A U.S. marine and an American civilian working for the military have been killed in Kuwait in recent months.

Analysts say the U.S. military presence enrages Muslim militants who could become a major threat to Kuwait's security.

Islamist radicals openly condemn the stationing of U.S. troops in Kuwait, which is publicly grateful to Washington for liberating it from Iraqi occupation, as a plot to dominate the region and criticise the government's close U.S. ties.