KUWAIT CITY, July 25 (AFP) - Kuwait said on Sunday it was questioning 11 people in connection with a purported campaign to recruit volunteers to fight US forces in Iraq and that some had confessed to undergoing military training.
"Eleven people have been referred to the prosecution for investigation of their role in ... enlisting youth for so-called jihad (holy war) in Iraq," Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah told the state KUNA news agency.
Authorities are trying to track down a small number of people who have been cited in the investigation as involved in the recruitment drive, he said.
The interior ministry on Saturday named two Kuwaitis it said were wanted on security-related charges, urging citizens and foreign residents to report any information that would lead to their arrest.
They included Khaled al-Dossari, spokesman for the Association of Victims of Torture and Arbitrary Arrest, who human rights groups have said is being harassed because of his activities in connection with rights abuses.
The ministry did not give details of the charges against the pair, but its announcement came just two days after it said that four Kuwaitis had been extradited by Syria after being arrested for illegally crossing or trying to cross into Iraq.
The ministry said the four had confessed to the charges and informed on other people, including a number who were under 18, some of whom were detained and found in possession of weapons as well as "maps and plans for operations."
Sheikh Nawaf said some of the suspects were teenagers who had apparently been "brainwashed" with extremist ideas.
"Some of the accused confessed that there are bases in which they train to achieve their goals," he said.
A security source said earlier Sunday that Kuwaiti police had found documents detailing an apparent plot to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a planned visit here later this week.
The documents were discovered "during raids over the past few days in search of suspects," the source told AFP without elaborating.
However, the interior ministry later issued a formal denial of any plot to attack Allawi in Kuwait.
"The relevant security services of the ministry did not uncover any such schemes," spokesman Adel al-Hashash told KUNA.
At its weekly meeting on Sunday, the Kuwaiti cabinet discussed measures to protect young people from the "dangerous ideas propagated by some extremists."
The drive to prevent youngsters from being misled would be coordinated by several ministries, including those of the interior, social affairs and Islamic affairs, Deputy Premier and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Mohammed Deifallah Sharar said in a statement carried by KUNA.