KUWAIT: Kuwait, America's staunchest ally in the gulf region, is struggling to cope with a recent surge in Islamic extremism and anti-American violence which has revealed the scale of the terrorist threat in the very heart of US military preparations for war against Iraq.
The 10,000 troops who have been stationed in Kuwait since the end of the Gulf war in order to protect the country from further attack and more recently to prepare for a possible invasion of Iraq, have never before experienced the current levels of hostility, which have left one marine dead, and three soldiers injured in the past six weeks.
The violence has left many Kuwaitis as well as the US military establishment shocked in a country where gratitude for America's leading role in the liberation of Kuwait in 1991 has become a habit. But others have been less surprised by the attacks, including one Kuwaiti defence official who said further incidents were just waiting to happen.
The real threat according to the official is not to be found in the mosques or religious schools but in the pool halls and cyber cafés where a new breed of terrorist is emerging from among the young, wealthy and disaffected Kuwaitis.
In downtown Kuwait City, one group of self-styled terrorists gather at a cyber café and play war games until late into the night, the most popular being one which allows them to put a team of snipers up against an invading army.
"I always imagine I'm fighting against the Americans," said Jagub, one of the group. "I think about what the Americans and Israelis are doing to the Palestinians, and that they are planning a war against Iraq, and it fills me with anger." While playing online the group also claims to be in regular contact with al-Qa'eda operatives on the Internet.
"We can get everything from there, instructions, bomb manuals, help and spiritual guidance," said a group member, "They remind us that if we want to get rid of the Americans we must fight them on our soil."
Kuwait has already provided al-Qa'eda with high-ranking members. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti national who used to teach children religious affairs went on to become its spokesman in Afghanistan.