A Kuwaiti Interior Ministry official confirmed a report that militant suspects captured in recent police raids confessed to planning to use ice cream trucks packed with explosives to attack US military convoys traveling to Iraq. Some 40 terror suspects have been handed over to prosecutors since the beginning of Kuwait's unprecedented crackdown on Muslim militants last month, and more were being investigated by police. Members of a militant group told interrogators they wanted to park the ice cream and snack vans loaded with explosives next to highways and detonate them as US military convoys traveling to and from Iraq passed by, the Al-Watan daily reported on Friday.On Sunday, most of the vans had disappeared from major highways and increased numbers of police cars were monitoring the roads. The snack vans, which also sell ice, are common on highways at this time of year when many Kuwaitis drive into the desert to camp. Suspects in custody include two women - the wife of the ringleader who allegedly helped him prepare explosives and the wife of one of five suspects who surrendered to police in Sulaibiyah Saturday. One woman captured Saturday, who was identified as a "non-Kuwaiti," was "hiding a machine-gun under her abaya," according to the official, referring to the black head-to-toe traditional cloak that some women in the country wear. The official said many of the suspects were led by a militant preacher named Amer Khlaif Al-Enezi, who was apprehended last month.
The five arrested Saturday, two Saudis and three Jordanians, were not tied to Al-Enezi's terror group, but were wanted for investigations about "many security-related suspicions,' the official said. In Amman, Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma Khader could not confirm any arrest of Jordanian nationals in Kuwait, but said if the reports were correct the men "are considered outlaws and should be tried in accordance with Kuwaiti law."