Australians among other nationals arrested in Kuwait for supplying ISIS

The Imam Sadiq Mosque is seen following a suicide bomb blast in Kuwait city, the capital of Kuwait, June 26, 2015. Kuwait’s interior ministry said on Friday that 25 people were killed in the suicide bomb strike on Imam Sadiq Mosque, a Shiite Muslim mosque, while the Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. (Xinhua/Noufal Ibrahim)

Two Australians are part of a group arrested in Kuwait, accused of being members of an extremist network that supplied funds and weapons, including rockets, to Islamic State militants, the state news agency Kuna quoted the interior ministry as saying on Thursday 19th November.

The group also included a Lebanese, an Egyptian, five Syrians and a Kuwaiti national, Kuna said. The cell’s Lebanese chief confessed that he raised funds and provided logistical support for Islamic State, which has carried out deadly attacks in Lebanon and France in the past week, according to Kuwait’s interior ministry.

He acted as coordinator for ISIS in Kuwait and arranged arms deals and FN6 portable air defense systems from Ukraine, which were shipped to IS in Syria through Turkey, according to Reuters.

One of the members allegedly coordinated the transfer of militants abroad and was a financier who sent money to accounts in Turkey and Australia. 

Also earlier this month, the lower court sentenced five men to 10 years in jail each for raising funds for ISIS. They were charged with raising about 400,000 Kuwaiti dinars ($A1.83 million) and sending it to ISIS, helping it seize control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and carrying out attacks throughout the Middle East.

The Gulf country suffered its worst militant attack at the hands of Islamic State in June, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the Imam al-Sadeq mosque in Kuwait City, killing 27 people.

Kuwait cracked down on Islamist militants after the bombing. Officials say the bombing was aimed at stoking strife between Sunnis and Shiaas in the majority Sunni Muslim state, where the two sects have usually coexisted in peace.

The United States and other Western countries have criticized Kuwait for what they have described as a permissive approach to militant financing.