Unrest spills into quiet Kuwait

A series of gunbattles here over the past month between Islamic militants and security forces have left many Kuwaitis wondering whether the violence plaguing neighboring Iraq and Saudi Arabia is about to spill over into their oil-rich Gulf state.

The Kuwaiti police have conducted several raids to round up Islamic militants who were allegedly planning to carry out attacks against Western targets, including American troops based in the country. Eight militants and four policemen have died in the clashes and 18 militants remain in custody. Large amounts of weapons and bombmaking materials have been seized.

With the authorities here admitting that the militants pose a serious threat, Kuwaitis fear they could pay a price for being America's staunchest ally in the Arab world. Kuwait gave full support to the US-led invasion of Iraq, and the country remains an important logistics hub for the US.

"These clashes are a small drop in the ocean to what is coming. Kuwait is becoming a top priority for Al Qaeda," says Mohammed Mulaifi, a writer and member of the strict Salafi branch of Sunni Islam who has close contacts with Kuwaiti militants.

So far the Kuwaiti authorities have remained one step ahead of the militants, breaking up cells, seizing weapons, and arresting suspects before attacks occur. At least three cells of Islamic militants have been identified and targeted in the crackdown, say Kuwaiti officials. On Tuesday, the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry announced that one ringleader, Amer Khlaif al-Enezi, 29, who was arrested in a raid on Jan. 31, died of "heart failure" in prison.

According to an official at the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry, Mr. Enezi had confessed to planning attacks against US military convoys. He says Enezi's brother, Nasser, who was killed in the Jan. 31 raid, had intended to kidnap Westerners and film their beheadings, a tactic he learned while fighting with insurgents in Iraq.

Mohsen al-Fadli and Khaled al-Dowsary, the other two wanted ringleaders, remain at large. Both are accused of having links with militants in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

In neighboring Saudi Arabia, the government is engaged in its own brutal confrontation with domestic Islamic militants intent on overthrowing the royal family. Despite the close ideological connections with their Saudi counterparts, Kuwaiti militants, analysts say, are more interested in attacking Western targets than ousting the ruling Sabah family.

The Kuwaiti authorities traditionally have turned a blind eye toward extremists operating in the country, so long as they refrained from directing their activities against the state. But the recent clashes have forced the government to look harder at the threat posed by domestic Islamists.

"These events mark a real watershed in terms of Kuwait dealing with the problem of extremists in their midst," says a Western diplomat, who did not want to be named.

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