Kuwait detains member of IS cyber army

DUBAI: Kuwaiti authorities have detained a state employee suspected of belonging to the ISlinked “Cyber Caliphate Army”, and hacking official websites of foreign countries to spread militant ideology, local media reported on Friday.

The Arabic-language and reported that the 26-year-old man identified as Othman Zebn Nayef was arrested after months of surveillance.

Al Qabas quoted the interior ministry’s public information department as saying in a statement that Nayef confessed to being “a main member of the so-called Caliphate Cyber Army”, believed to be the electronic arm of IS. The English-language which carried a similar report, did not identify the department where he had worked, but said he was caught using his office computer to “hack official social media sites of some ‘friendly and sister’ countries to spread the extremist thoughts of the so-called IS”. The statement said Nayef ’s arrest had helped capture two suspects in Iraq and one in Jordan on Thursday, but provided no further details.

In a separate report, Al Qabas said that around 150 Kuwaiti nationals and residents who hold no citizenship, known as Bidoon, were in Syria fighting within armed groups trying to topple President Bashar Al Assad, and that up to 11 have died in the fighting. The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that some of those fighters have been trying to find ways to return home as they face “extortion” and robbery from fellow militants.