Kuwait security authorities are looking for three Iranian suspects in the Hezbollah terrorist case as the scope of investigation is widening.
The authorities have been following up on a lead in the case for almost a year after they were tipped by a foreign intelligence service, Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas reported on Saturday.
The authorities on Thursday seized a huge cache of arms smuggled from abroad.
Sources told the daily that the foreign members of the busted cell, mainly Lebanese and Iranian nationals, were working in the money exchange and construction sectors whereas the four Kuwaiti citizens were employed in government ministries.
The members included divers who reportedly facilitated with the smuggling of explosives and weapons and with taking pictures of sensitive areas, mainly in ports, and sending out delicate information about the movement of ships and commerce in the country.
Kuwaiti suspects admitted during their questioning that they received military and intelligence training in Lebanon and said they were proud of being members of Hezbollah.
The confessions indicated that the suspects belonged to several wings within the party and that while some were in the military section, others were in the social and political sections.
The sources added that more suspects are expected to be arrested “within days” as the investigation widens and more raids are being conducted on all suspicious places.
Several houses in several governorates of Kuwait were searched on Friday, the sources added.
Other Kuwaiti nationals were arrested in the Jabriya area over their alleged links with the terrorists.
The four suspects who were arrested were remanded in custody by the public prosecution amid reports that they were further questioned on Sunday.
At the same time, the state security has given the names of three Iranian suspects to the police at the sea, land, and air exit stations to ensure they cannot leave the country.
The three Iranians were residing in the country under the sponsorship of money exchange companies.
According to the sources, the security authorities said they did not rule out the existence of other weapon stores in the country, similar to the one discovered on Thursday.
However, they added that the arrest and questioning of suspects would help them discover more plots and plans, particularly that the quantity of weapons and explosives seized on Thursday would more than enough to carry out acts of sabotage not only in Kuwait, but also in the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
The GCC, established in 1981, comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The sources told the daily that all the suspects, estimated to be 20, had received training in Lebanon.
According to Kuwaiti daily Al Anba, the four Kuwaiti suspects would face charges of intelligence with a foreign country, receiving money from a foreign country to harm Kuwait’s security, the possession of weapons, ammunition and explosives and smuggling weapons from abroad.
Three suspects reportedly told the investigators that they often travelled to Lebanon to meet figures from Hezbollah, but said they did not raise suspicions by going to Europe first before heading to the Middle Eastern country.
One suspect said he met senior figures within the Hezbollah party and that he was given more than $100,000.
The other suspects admitted they have been to Lebanon and received amounts of money, Al Anba said.
They all said the instructions they had received were initially limited to storing weapons and that some of them were smuggled via the sea.
One suspect said they were told the weapons were “a precautionary measure” and that they would be used “in self –defence”, especially that the “regional conditions were not easy”.
GN
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