Kuwait has begun tightening its grip on security in a new wave of clampdown on suspected terrorists amid surging violence in the Middle East.

A group of suspected Al-Qaida supporters were arrested in Kuwait for recruiting militants to attack Kuwaiti targets as well as US troops in Iraq, an Interior Ministry official said Saturday.

Some of the arrested were found carrying weapons, ammunition, maps and operation plans.

Apart from the 12 arrested, authorities were searching foranother two on suspicion of indoctrinating young people withradical Islamic ideology and helping them infiltrate into Iraq via Syria to fight foreign troops.

The ministry called on citizens and residents in Kuwait to contact the ministry if they got any information on the two atlarge.

All arrested had been referred to the public prosecution where they would be further questioned, the official said.

Local press said many Kuwaiti extremists went to Iraq to join the battle against the multinational forces led by the United States.

Kuwait has been cracking down on Islamic militants opposed tothe US presence in Kuwait and probing into any potential terror networks in the country.

Four people were handed over by Syria to the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry on charges of illegal entry into Iraq.

According to the local reports, Kuwaiti security forces arrested seven others, most of them juveniles, for allegedly adopting strict religious ideas and linking with terror organizations outside the country.

A senior security source said Kuwaiti authorities were also clamping down on "Islamic radicals" and keeping an eye on their activities, especially their "incitement of young men to go to Iraq to wage jihad (holy war)."

The source also said security forces had detained about 20 Muslim fundamentalists for recruiting teenagers to fight Americans in Iraq.

The Arab Times quoted security sources as saying that Kuwait's efforts to foil terrorist attacks also came in form of coordination with neighboring countries and allies.

In a meeting held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Wednesday,the six neighboring states of Iraq, namely Jordan, Syria, Iran,Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, responded to Iraq's plea forsecurity assistance by agreeing to hold a high-level meeting toaddress the issue of cross-border infiltration.

On July 3, the United States informed Kuwait of the suspected link of nine Kuwaitis to Al-Qaida and their alleged involvement inthe anti-US insurgency in Iraq.

Some 25,000 US troops are based in Kuwait, which served as amain launching pad for the US-led invasion of Iraq last year.

Source: Xinhua