US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT446

UNCLAS KUWAIT 000446 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, PREL, KU, TERRORISM 
SUBJECT: KUWAIT RESPONDS TO JANUARY 31 SHOOTOUT: GOK WILL 
NOT COMPROMISE ON TERROR 
 
REF: A. KUWAIT 417 
     B. KUWAIT 406 
     C. KUWAIT 339 
     D. KUWAIT 264 
     E. KUWAIT 244 
     F. KUWAIT 174 
 
1. Summary: Kuwaiti officials vowed to use all available 
resources to hunt down militants after security forces 
engaged in a nine-hour confrontation with Islamic radicals on 
January 31 that left 5 militants, 1 civilian and 1 police 
officer dead, 4 police officers and 3 militants wounded, and 
led to the capture of the group's spiritual leader, Amer 
Khlaif Al-Enezi.  End Summary. 
 
2. Interior Minister Shaykh Nawaf Al Ahmed Al-Sabah told 
local reporters January 31 that Kuwait was exerting maximum 
effort to hunt down all suspects involved in the string of 
shootouts between security forces and radical Islamic 
militants.  Meeting with the editors of local dailies the 
same day, Acting Minister of Information Faisal Al-Hajji 
likened the current security situation to "cancer" and said 
the government was "determined to confront and uproot this 
phenomenon," according to Arabic daily Al-Watan.  The Prime 
Minister was quoted ordering all government ministries to 
confront extremism in all its forms. 
 
3. National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, who is 
presiding over a February 1 special session of that body to 
discuss security in the country, told the Kuwait News Agency 
(KUNA) January 31 that the Assembly was united in support of 
government efforts to combat extremism.  He further said 
"Kuwaitis all reject such acts and tendencies." 
 
4. During its weekly Sunday meeting on January 30, the 
Council of Ministers charged all government authorities to 
take whatever measures necessary to maintain public safety. 
The Ministry of Awqaf responded by issuing orders to its 
media department to develop a media campaign to combat 
extremism. 
 
5. Other prominent Kuwaitis have voiced their solidarity with 
the government.  At a January 31 seminar hosted by the Kuwait 
Graduates Society and entitled "Extremism and Terrorism... 
Why?," non-profit organizations expressed their condemnation 
of the current violence and terrorism in general.  The head 
of the Women's Cultural Society, Shaikha Al-Nisf, said Kuwait 
should take a comprehensive approach to combating terror and 
countering extremist thought and behavior.  Graduates Society 
President Saud Al-Enezi called for a review of Kuwaiti school 
curricula as an integral part of any such strategy.  A member 
of the Kuwait Journalists Asssociation, Ayed Al-Mannaa, 
agreed, and noted that the ultimate goal of the terrorists 
was the deprivation of freedom. He said terrorists would fail 
here just as they had in Algeria and are doing in Saudi 
Arabia. 
 
6. The incident was the fourth (refs A-F) between Kuwaiti 
security forces and suspected terrorists in the month of 
January, during which the GOK conducted a series of 
operations aimed at rounding up possible terrorists and 
seizing illegal weapons. 
 
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LEBARON