More on foreign insurgents in Iraq
Several Arab newspapers are reporting that Kuwaiti youths are being recruited and trained in Syria for jihad duty in Iraq. Many Kuwaitis are unhappy.
The Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai Al-Aam reported: "Kuwaiti Islamist missionaries (Du'aat) enticed Kuwaiti teenagers with the idea of Jihad, urged them to take part in the Iraqi resistance against the Americans, and arranged their passage to Syria. There, the teenagers met clandestinely [with trainers] who prepared them for combat and secured their crossing into Iraq via the Syrian border."Family members of two Kuwaiti youngsters said that a [certain] group in Al-Fuheihil lured their sons aged 16 and 17 and convinced them to go to Syria after requiring them to shave off their beards and to change their hairstyles according to the new fashion … to avoid suspicion. They added that they had discovered their sons' intentions through friends who disclosed to them parts of the propaganda and enticement schemes. The relatives gave the information to the [Kuwaiti] foreign ministry, which demanded from the Kuwaiti embassy in Damascus to find the two Kuwaiti teenagers immediately, and to coordinate that with the Syrian authorities in order to prevent their travel to Iraq. The search for them is still going on."
Sources in the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry reported that one of the teenagers contacted his relatives and told them that he was indeed in Syria, but did not disclose his location.