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Kandari pledged to “also slaughter Americans like they are slaughtering us”
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KUWAIT
CITY, October 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – One of the
Kuwaitis who killed an American soldier in the island of Failaka, and
who has three of his family members detained by U.S. forces in
Guantanamo, was deeply moved by the Israeli massacres in Khan Yunis.
He
pledged that he would retaliate, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported
Wednesday, October 9.
Al-Rai
Al-Aam said Anas Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Kandari, 21, had asked his
mother to “pray for him to become a martyr” two days before the
attack, the daily added, quoting his family, which said they
“considered him a martyr.”
Kandari,
according to his brothers, was so affected by the massacres in the
Palestinian territories by Israeli forces that upon watching the most
recent massacre in Khan Yunis, he pledged to “also slaughter
Americans like they are slaughtering us,” Al-Rai Al-Aam said.
Kandari
and his cousin Hamad Mubarak Al-Hajeri would go to Failaka on a weekly
basis, but their families were never suspicious, the paper said.
However,
the paper quoted Kandari’s brothers saying that their contempt on
the American policies increased severely.
Kandari,
fought in Afghanistan and came back before the September 11 attacks,
said Al-Rai Al-Aam and then underwent interviews and
investigations by the Kuwaiti security authorities. Al-Hajeri fought
in Afghanistan and in Bosnia and used to work in the Oil Ministry
before resigning nearly a year ago, the paper said, adding that he had
bought a new Porsche car a small while ago.
Ten
days ago, Kandari stopped praying in his local mosque and started
praying in another mosque in the Al-Rumaithya area. He would ask his
mother to give him her blessings and he would daily tell her: “I’m
about to carry out a good project, so pray for me,” the paper said.
Kandari
left several wills for his mother to open after his death, in which he
spoke about the events taking place in the occupied territories and in
one of them he asked not to be washed, or wrapped and to be buried in
his clothes like martyrs.
He
also asked for all his money and properties to be given to the
mujahideen (holy fighters).
Kuwait
was Wednesday rounding up groups suspected of assisting the two in
their attack which killed a U.S. marine and wounded another during
military exercises, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
According
to Al Jazeera’s satellite channel said that nearly 31 people from
different nationalities were arrested.
The
U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet for its part said it was undetermined
whether the Eager Mace 2002 war games on and around Failaka, a Kuwaiti
island 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Kuwait City where the incident
took place, would continue.
As
newspapers claimed links between the gunmen and Osama bin Laden’s
al-Qaeda network, state minister for foreign affairs Sheikh Mohammad
Sabah al-Sabah said Kuwait, Washington's closest ally in the Gulf, was
“taking the appropriate steps to round up those who we think
provided some assistance to the terrorists.”
“There
are groups which have been brought in for questioning and groups which
we think supported these terrorists. Therefore we are taking all
necessary steps to safeguard the interests of Kuwait,” he said.
Sheikh
Mohammad said there were “numerous” people in custody, but that
“this number has been changing by the minute.”
“Some
are (in) just for questioning and others will be held for a longer
period of time pending certain clarifications,” he said without
giving details.
The
minister said U.S. forces were in Kuwait for one reason alone: “To
protect Kuwait’s security and to participate (in exercises) with
Kuwaiti armed forces.
“For
these (U.S.) forces to be attacked, we consider this an attack against
Kuwait’s national interests,” he said.
Kuwait’s
defense chief Major General Ali al-Momen said the two assailants,
“who are well known Kuwaitis, have got an affiliation, possibly with
certain extremist groups,” and that the attack was “well
planned.”
“They
had their own motivation to do this. They seized upon an opportunity,
they are dying for their cause,” Momen, who is chief-of-staff of
Kuwait’s armed forces, told journalists.
Asked
if it was a suicide mission, he said: “To a certain extent, yes.
They must have known what risk they were taking.”
“It’s
not a purely Kuwaiti matter,” Momen said when asked about the
assailants' motive for the attack. “There is a lot of connection
with the situation in this region.”
The
U.S. daily newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, said that since
it was liberated from Iraqi occupation by a U.S.-led coalition in the
1991 Gulf War, Kuwait has been the Middle East nation most genuinely
sympathetic toward American policy in the Gulf, and the most
hospitable, providing military bases, training and support.
Yet,
according to the CS Monitor, as the U.S. gears up to expand
Washington’s “war on terror” to Iraq, a series of fresh attacks
against U.S. forces – even in nations where the majority support the
U.S. presence – underscores the risk to growing U.S. military
deployments.
The
strikes, the paper said, come against a backdrop of deepening concern
in the Arab world about U.S. plans and motivations for an attack
against Iraq, and concern among analysts that U.S. military action is
likely to boost support for Al-Qaeda.
