Kuwait gears up for long battle

On January 10, police arrived at a car rental company in Maidan Hawalli, a residential and shopping district of Kuwait City, to arrest a man for questioning about his extreme views.

The man, Fawaz Al Otaibi, was shot dead by his colleagues, according to the Interior Ministry, while security forces were trying to arrest him.

Two policemen were killed and another two injured in the ensuing gunbattle with the extremists who were waiting in a car.

This unprecedented attack on Kuwaiti security forces and the spilling of their blood opened a pandora's box on which the country had kept a tight lid for many years.

US embassy warnings that it had credible information that an individual or individuals were planning to attack Westerners randomly had come just before the shootout in Maidan Hawalli.

Kuwait then cracked down on all suspected extremists in an attempt to hunt down the killers and it was then revealed that the government already had information that terror cells in the country were targeting the country's stability by plotting to attack vital oil installations, US forces and Westerners in order to force a regime change.

Salem Al Ali, commander of the National Guard, said, "The fugitives wanted by Kuwaiti security forces are targeting the country's stability."

He also said about 10,000 national guards were deployed around vital installations and embassies to secure them against terror attacks.

The hunt for suspected extremists simultaneously revealed that many of the young men wanted for questioning met regularly at a mosque in Jahra.

The Imam of the mosque was none other than Amer Khlaif Al Enezi, who surrendered to security forces on January 31 after the deadliest gunbattle of the four that took place in that fateful month.

Al Enezi died February 8 in custody due to heart failure, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

Al Enezi, allegedly a spiritual leader of the terror cell "Peninsula Lions", was reportedly fired by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs from his post as preacher because of his extremist ideology.

Al Otaibi was also an employee of the same ministry and he belonged to a group called Takfir wa Hijra.

Names of other groups that came up, include "Sharia Falcons Brigades", "The Brigades of the Two Shrines" and "The Martyr Abdul Aziz Al Muqrin Brigades".

Al Enezi also confessed that his group's long-term aim was the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the country and that wide scale bombing operations and assassinations would help bring that about.

Al Enezi's brother and right hand man Nasser Khlaif died a gruesome death on the steps of an apartment building in Salmiya in the third attack that took place a day before the Mubarak Al Kabeer gunbattle that ended with four militants killed.

A Kuwaiti civilian onlooker was also reportedly killed by the militants.

Nasser Khlaif Al Enezi, according to his brother, had plotted to kidnap and execute US soldiers and other Westerners in Umm Al Haiman and videotape the executions.

The connection with Saudi militants surfaced when one was killed in the Umm Al Haiman raid which turned into a five hour gun battle.

Connections were also made with Yemenis, Jordanians and bidoons (stateless).

The Kuwaiti government then vowed to hunt down any terrorist who tried to destabilise the country.

"This issue (Terrorism) will continue", Prime Minister Shaikh Sabha Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah said.

"What we are seeing here could spread to other Gulf States … The government and security forces have planned for a worst case scenario."

Consequently the Cabinet and the Parliament also went into action by approving various bills, chief among them being the Weapons Search and Seizure Law, legislation for cracking down on the financing of terror and a National Terror Strategy.

The government which had so far considered previous actions by these groups as isolated manifestations of anti-American sentiment and continued its policy of tolerance in the hope of keeping the balance in Kuwaiti society came down with an iron fist.

Instigators of terrorism are now every bit as culpable as the men who are actually involved in terror.

Illegal mosques are to be brought down, the education curriculum is to be revised, extremist websites are being shut down, internet and mobile communications are being monitored for extremist plans.

Charity organisations have been warned to stick to the regulations or face legal action and penalties.

The government has also instituted a complete change to moderation and tolerance and is combating extremist ideology every chance it gets.

Islamists have also been put on the defensive "as the very same politicians and lawmakers who aspired to create a Taliban state in Kuwait are now vociferously supporting the government's efforts to establish moderation and tolerance", liberals said.

Kuwaiti security forces are still hunting members of other known cells including Khalid Al Dosari and Mohsen Al Fadhli alleged ring leaders of terror groups.