In Kuwait, authorities have arrested five suspected Islamic militants and seized a large quantity of weapons and ammunition. The arrests follow last month's arrest of three Kuwaitis who had allegedly planned to attack U.S. troops.
Kuwait's Interior Ministry says the five men being detained are Islamic extremists, who confessed that they have had weapons training to carry out unspecified attacks. Four of the suspects are Kuwaiti nationals. The nationality of the fifth man is unknown.
The ministry says the men were in possession of a large amount of guns, hand grenades and ammunition. Kuwaiti officials believe the men collected the arms during the seven month Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the early 1990s.
The arrests are the latest in the months-long government crackdown on suspected terrorists and al-Qaida sympathizers in the Gulf state. A U.S. Marine and an American civilian contractor have been killed in Kuwait in recent months by Muslims opposed to the large U.S. military presence here.
More than 200,000 U.S. and British troops are in Kuwait, preparing for a possible military showdown with Iraq.