Kuwait arrests six suspected ISIS cell members

Story highlights

Kuwait State TV: Suspected cell involved in ISIS recruiting, logistics, funding

Suspect allegedly admits to buying ammunition, rockets for terror group

Four others may have collaborated with suspected cell

CNN  — 

Six men suspected of belonging to an ISIS terror cell have been arrested by authorities in the Middle East country of Kuwait.

Kuwait State TV, quoting a Kuwaiti Interior Ministry statement, said the cell was allegedly involved in recruiting for ISIS, as well as providing logistics and funding for the terror group.

Kuwait said the alleged cell is composed of two Kuwaitis, three Syrians and one Egyptian.

In its statement, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said one of those arrested, Lebanese-born Syrian Osama Mohammed Saeed Khaiyat, used a website under his supervision to help fund and support ISIS.

Khaiyat allegedly admitted under interrogation that he made a deal in Ukraine to buy ammunition and rockets for the terror group, shipping via Turkey to Syria.

Kuwait said the suspect also confessed to printing badges and stamps featuring ISIS signatures and signs, as well as transferring money to bank accounts in both Syria and Turkey.

Kuwait’s Interior Ministry also alleges the suspected cell collaborated with four people outside Kuwait, identified as two Syrians and two Australian-Lebanese. It’s not clear whether those four have been arrested, and officials did not elaborate on the alleged collaboration.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for both last week’s terror attacks in Paris and for bringing down a Russian passenger jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last month.

French President Francois Hollande said he would appeal to world leaders to form a wider coalition to go after ISIS, including meeting next week with U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

And France’s interior minister will press the case for greater European action at an upcoming European Union meeting in Belgium.