Kuwait Says Smashes Daesh-Linked Cell
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Kuwait said its security forces have disbanded an extremist cell over selling military equipment to the ISIL terrorist group.
According to a statement by Kuwait’s Interior Ministry on Thursday, the country’s security forces arrested six members of a Daesh-linked cell in an operation, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.
It added that four other members, including Australian-Lebanese nationals, still remain on the run.
The leader of the group has been identified as a 45-year-old Lebanese national, Osama Khayat, the statement added.
He has confessed to recruiting militants for Daesh and raising money that was transferred to Daesh bank accounts in Turkey.
The cell was involved in making arms deals on behalf of the ISIL leaders in Syria, including acquiring portable air defense systems and other weaponry, according to the information provided by Khayat.
The details of the deal revealed that the weapons were first shipped from Ukraine to Turkey and then smuggled into Syria.
Others involved in the cell were Syrians, an Egyptian and a Kuwaiti. Four others have not been detained and are thought to be outside of Kuwait. The suspects still at large include two Australian-Lebanese nationals and two Syrian nationals.
One of the members in charge of supplying terrorists with the weapons was identified as a Syrian national, Abdulkarim Selem.
Kuwait’s authorities said that the cell was discovered amid a crackdown on terrorism in the country.
Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.
The terror group has claimed responsibility for a deadly plane crash in Egypt and a string of recent attacks in Lebanon and France.
