6 sentenced to death in Kuwait for planned attack on troops

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Six men were convicted and sentenced to death Tuesday on charges they belonged to a terrorist group that planned to attack U.S. troops in Kuwait. The men — three Kuwaitis and three stateless Arabs who live in Kuwait — were among 37 Kuwaitis and other nationals accused of joining the Lions of the Peninsula, a group the prosecution claims was planning the attacks.

Kuwaiti authorities broke up the cell in clashes in January that left eight suspected terrorists and four policemen dead. Weapons, bombs and chemicals that could be used for making explosives were found in the suspects’ possession.

Twenty-three alleged members of the cell are already serving prison terms ranging from four months to 15 years. Seven were acquitted while another was given a life sentence. The defense argued the six were planning to go to Iraq and asked for leniency from the court. “I believe those young men have been deceived, and the way to deal with it is not tough sentences,” their lawyer, Khaled al-Abdul-Jalil, told the three-judge panel last month.

Kuwait was a launch pad for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and remains a logistics base for the international coalition, which is fighting an Iraqi insurgency that includes Islamic militants from other Arab nations. Scores of Kuwaiti Islamic fundamentalists have fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and Iraq.