Mourners carry a
shrouded body in Kuwait City on Saturday at a funeral for victims of the
suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque a day earlier.
Photo:
raed qutena/European Pressphoto Agency
For years, Washington has warned Kuwait and other Gulf monarchies
that they weren’t doing enough to stop their own citizens from
supporting extremist groups.
The targeting of Kuwait in a deadly suicide bombing on Friday claimed by Islamic State has renewed scrutiny of such support and affirmed fears of a blowback.
Western and Arab officials said both before and after the attack that Kuwait is among Gulf states where extremist ideology goes largely unchecked and is generously funded, in part because the Sunni monarchies and Sunni extremist groups share a hatred of Shiite Iran, their regional rival.
As a result, Western officials have struggled to get Kuwait and other Gulf Arab allies to halt private donations to jihadist groups. Those donations often provided seed money to get groups such as Islamic State off the ground before they became big enough to control swaths of territory, exact taxes and tolls and launch terror attacks in Gulf countries, according to Western officials.
“After 9/11, we thought they understood that this was no longer acceptable,” said a State Department official in Washington who focuses on the Middle East. “It seems they didn’t get the message.”
Officials in Kuwait, however, said they’ve tried to choke off capital to extremist groups. Following years of U.S. pressure, Kuwait—a base for American counterterror activities—in 2013 made it illegal to finance terrorist groups, though implementation has been a challenge. Some of the main financiers in recent years, including civil servants and a top government official, were only penalized at home after a public outcry from the West.
“Kuwait is committed to all laws criminalizing the funding of terrorism,” said a government official. The Ministry of Interior didn’t respond to requests for comment.
A Western diplomat based in the Middle East agreed that the Kuwaiti government has tried to clamp down on the financing of terrorist groups over the past year, although private citizens have been some of the major financiers of jihadist groups in Syria since 2012. Individuals can still use informal networks and channels to raise money for terrorist causes, but the diplomat said this wasn’t a uniquely Kuwaiti problem.
“Public institutions are not channeling funds to known terrorist groups. There has been a very clear response. Financial institutions have tightened things up considerably,” the diplomat said.
Kuwait, a small desert monarchy nestled between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, had until now managed to steer almost entirely free of the extremist violence flaring elsewhere in the region.
But in Friday’s attack, a Saudi national identified as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qabaa entered the country at dawn via Kuwait City’s airport, strapped a belt of explosives to his body and blew himself up at one of the country’s largest Shiite mosques, officials told state-run Kuwait News Agency, or KUNA. The bombing—which killed 27 and injured more than 200—was one of the bloodiest assaults in the country’s history.
As thousands turned out in Kuwait City on Saturday for funerals for the victims, Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah vowed the attack wouldn’t ignite violence among Kuwait’s political and religious factions.
Long before the attack, Kuwaitis were under scrutiny for suspected aid to extremist groups. In August last year, the United Nations Security Council and the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted two Kuwaiti citizens suspected of financing terrorism.
One of them was Shafi al-Ajami, a professor at state-run University of Kuwait who has publicly rallied for the killing of Shiites—who belong to a sect Sunni extremists deem heretical.
The sanctions came just a few months after Kuwait’s minister of justice and Islamic affairs, Nayef al-Ajmi, resigned in May. The Treasury Department had accused him of promoting the funding of extremist groups in Syria, a charge Mr. Ajmi denied.
As Washington assembled its anti-Islamic State coalition in September last year, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to demand regional allies crack down on the ideological and financial support given to extremist groups. He argued military action alone couldn’t defeat extremists after some two decades fighting the war on terror.
Mr. Kerry met with 10 Arab allies, including all six Gulf states. Together they vowed to counter the “financing of [Islamic State] and other violent extremists, repudiating their hateful ideology, ending impunity and bringing perpetrators to justice.”
Despite the promises made in Jeddah, the Treasury Department issued a rebuke just one month later in October to Kuwait and another Gulf nation, Qatar. The countries had allowed “permissive jurisdictions for terrorist financing,” said David Cohen, then undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Some critics say they weren’t surprised by the attack, largely because of the country’s slow response to halting financing of terror networks.
“I was sure that terrorism will reach Kuwait,” said Khalid Al Shatti, a Shiite lawyer and former parliamentarian in the country. “As expected, these terrorist groups switched their loyalties and are now attacking funding nations.”
Friday’s attack came at a time of rising sectarian tensions within Kuwait. Earlier this year, two prominent Shiite leaders in Kuwait including Mr. Shatti were arrested for criticizing the Saudi-led war against pro-Iranian rebels in Yemen.
The bombing has renewed focus on combating sectarian violence in Gulf States such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, oil-rich Sunni monarchies that have supported the U.S.-led coalition conducting airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The assault came in the wake of a series of bombings at Shiite mosques in neighboring Saudi Arabia, also claimed by Islamic State.
Between 1,500 to 2,500 Saudi fighters have joined extremists groups in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, according to a report by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization published earlier this year. Meanwhile, 70 fighters have been recruited from Kuwait, the report said.
In Saudi Arabia, the fighters are typically arrested when they return home and sentenced to jail before undergoing a de-radicalization program. That program has had questionable success — jihadists in that program went on to form and join al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, considered the most deadly terrorist organization by U.S. officials.
In addition to the arrests, Saudi authorities have also tried in recent months to crack down on recruiting by intensifying surveillance on extremists activities on social media and urging parents to report their sons if they show signs of extremism.
At the same time, the government has continued its efforts to cut funding for extremist groups by asking citizens to ensure that their donations go to officially licensed Islamic charities only.
Kuwait faces its own domestic challenges. The marginalization of the country’s patchwork of religious and social groups, such as the Bidun or stateless citizens, could make it a fertile recruitment ground for Islamic State, leading to homegrown attacks, said Anwar Al Rasheed, head of Kuwait’s Gulf Forum for Civil Societies.
“All this lack of democracy encourages terrorists,” Mr. Rasheed said.
The man who drove the bomber to the site of Friday’s attack was stateless, authorities said, and Bidun political activists said in April that some support Islamic State but have yet to act on their beliefs. In a sign of growing fears, the government established a gun amnesty earlier this year to encourage Kuwaitis to hand in their firearms.
The targeting of Kuwait in a deadly suicide bombing on Friday claimed by Islamic State has renewed scrutiny of such support and affirmed fears of a blowback.
Western and Arab officials said both before and after the attack that Kuwait is among Gulf states where extremist ideology goes largely unchecked and is generously funded, in part because the Sunni monarchies and Sunni extremist groups share a hatred of Shiite Iran, their regional rival.
As a result, Western officials have struggled to get Kuwait and other Gulf Arab allies to halt private donations to jihadist groups. Those donations often provided seed money to get groups such as Islamic State off the ground before they became big enough to control swaths of territory, exact taxes and tolls and launch terror attacks in Gulf countries, according to Western officials.
“After 9/11, we thought they understood that this was no longer acceptable,” said a State Department official in Washington who focuses on the Middle East. “It seems they didn’t get the message.”
Officials in Kuwait, however, said they’ve tried to choke off capital to extremist groups. Following years of U.S. pressure, Kuwait—a base for American counterterror activities—in 2013 made it illegal to finance terrorist groups, though implementation has been a challenge. Some of the main financiers in recent years, including civil servants and a top government official, were only penalized at home after a public outcry from the West.
“Kuwait is committed to all laws criminalizing the funding of terrorism,” said a government official. The Ministry of Interior didn’t respond to requests for comment.
A Western diplomat based in the Middle East agreed that the Kuwaiti government has tried to clamp down on the financing of terrorist groups over the past year, although private citizens have been some of the major financiers of jihadist groups in Syria since 2012. Individuals can still use informal networks and channels to raise money for terrorist causes, but the diplomat said this wasn’t a uniquely Kuwaiti problem.
“Public institutions are not channeling funds to known terrorist groups. There has been a very clear response. Financial institutions have tightened things up considerably,” the diplomat said.
Kuwait, a small desert monarchy nestled between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, had until now managed to steer almost entirely free of the extremist violence flaring elsewhere in the region.
But in Friday’s attack, a Saudi national identified as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qabaa entered the country at dawn via Kuwait City’s airport, strapped a belt of explosives to his body and blew himself up at one of the country’s largest Shiite mosques, officials told state-run Kuwait News Agency, or KUNA. The bombing—which killed 27 and injured more than 200—was one of the bloodiest assaults in the country’s history.
As thousands turned out in Kuwait City on Saturday for funerals for the victims, Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah vowed the attack wouldn’t ignite violence among Kuwait’s political and religious factions.
Long before the attack, Kuwaitis were under scrutiny for suspected aid to extremist groups. In August last year, the United Nations Security Council and the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted two Kuwaiti citizens suspected of financing terrorism.
One of them was Shafi al-Ajami, a professor at state-run University of Kuwait who has publicly rallied for the killing of Shiites—who belong to a sect Sunni extremists deem heretical.
The sanctions came just a few months after Kuwait’s minister of justice and Islamic affairs, Nayef al-Ajmi, resigned in May. The Treasury Department had accused him of promoting the funding of extremist groups in Syria, a charge Mr. Ajmi denied.
As Washington assembled its anti-Islamic State coalition in September last year, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to demand regional allies crack down on the ideological and financial support given to extremist groups. He argued military action alone couldn’t defeat extremists after some two decades fighting the war on terror.
Mr. Kerry met with 10 Arab allies, including all six Gulf states. Together they vowed to counter the “financing of [Islamic State] and other violent extremists, repudiating their hateful ideology, ending impunity and bringing perpetrators to justice.”
Despite the promises made in Jeddah, the Treasury Department issued a rebuke just one month later in October to Kuwait and another Gulf nation, Qatar. The countries had allowed “permissive jurisdictions for terrorist financing,” said David Cohen, then undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Some critics say they weren’t surprised by the attack, largely because of the country’s slow response to halting financing of terror networks.
“I was sure that terrorism will reach Kuwait,” said Khalid Al Shatti, a Shiite lawyer and former parliamentarian in the country. “As expected, these terrorist groups switched their loyalties and are now attacking funding nations.”
Friday’s attack came at a time of rising sectarian tensions within Kuwait. Earlier this year, two prominent Shiite leaders in Kuwait including Mr. Shatti were arrested for criticizing the Saudi-led war against pro-Iranian rebels in Yemen.
The bombing has renewed focus on combating sectarian violence in Gulf States such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, oil-rich Sunni monarchies that have supported the U.S.-led coalition conducting airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The assault came in the wake of a series of bombings at Shiite mosques in neighboring Saudi Arabia, also claimed by Islamic State.
Between 1,500 to 2,500 Saudi fighters have joined extremists groups in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, according to a report by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization published earlier this year. Meanwhile, 70 fighters have been recruited from Kuwait, the report said.
In Saudi Arabia, the fighters are typically arrested when they return home and sentenced to jail before undergoing a de-radicalization program. That program has had questionable success — jihadists in that program went on to form and join al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, considered the most deadly terrorist organization by U.S. officials.
In addition to the arrests, Saudi authorities have also tried in recent months to crack down on recruiting by intensifying surveillance on extremists activities on social media and urging parents to report their sons if they show signs of extremism.
At the same time, the government has continued its efforts to cut funding for extremist groups by asking citizens to ensure that their donations go to officially licensed Islamic charities only.
Kuwait faces its own domestic challenges. The marginalization of the country’s patchwork of religious and social groups, such as the Bidun or stateless citizens, could make it a fertile recruitment ground for Islamic State, leading to homegrown attacks, said Anwar Al Rasheed, head of Kuwait’s Gulf Forum for Civil Societies.
“All this lack of democracy encourages terrorists,” Mr. Rasheed said.
The man who drove the bomber to the site of Friday’s attack was stateless, authorities said, and Bidun political activists said in April that some support Islamic State but have yet to act on their beliefs. In a sign of growing fears, the government established a gun amnesty earlier this year to encourage Kuwaitis to hand in their firearms.
—Asa Fitch in Dubai, Ahmed Al Omran in Riyadh, Dahlia Kholaif in Cairo and Dana Ballout in Beirut contributed to this article.[source]
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