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TERRORISTS THREATEN KUWAIT

From correspondents in Kuwait City
April 28, 2004

KUWAIT has confirmed reports of terrorist threats against local and foreign targets in the country, the interior minister said in remarks published today, while a security official said the emirate had heightened its state of alert.

"We have information on reports confirming the existence of threats against local and foreign establishments in Kuwait. We have adopted the necessary plans to protect these institutions," Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah told Al-Seyassah daily.

"We have taken security precautions to confront any terrorist attacks," said Sheikh Nawaf, who is also first deputy prime minister.

The oil-rich emirate has raised its state of alert, beefing up security measures around possible foreign targets and all vital installations including oil facilities, a senior security official told AFP.

"The state of security alert has definitely been raised, but it has not reached the red level. It is still precautionary and preventive in nature, taking into account the regional turmoil," said the official, requesting anonymity.

Kuwaiti security authorities have also stepped up contacts and coordination with their counterparts in neighbouring Saudi Arabia following the latest suicide bombing in Riyadh, which killed five people and wounded 148, the official said.

Besides boosting security around key facilities, police have started setting up mobile road blocks and intensified their presence around areas housing foreigners.

But none of the Western embassies here, including the US and British missions, have issued any new security warning to their nationals.

The interior minister's statements follow threats of attacks on the Kuwaiti embassies and Kuwait Airways offices in Thailand and the Philippines by a previously unknown group called the "Yellow-Red Overseas Organization".

Officials said the group also threatened to attack major facilities in countries linked to US-led operations in Iraq including Australia, Japan, Kuwait, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand between April 20 and 30.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah warned of a terror "plot" aimed at destabilising the oil-rich Gulf region.

"We believe there is a plot to destabilise the region ... We are facing real dangers that we must not underestimate," said Sheikh Mohammed.

Interior ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council states are scheduled to ink an anti-terrorism pact next month in Kuwait, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Attiya said here Tuesday.

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The pact will focus "on boosting security cooperation among the member states and would give a clear message that we are united" against terrorism, Attiya said.

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