KUWAIT: The following is a report highlighting major events related to defense, interior, and national security in Kuwait throughout 2021:
March 17: Ministry of Interior wins the 2020 award for best awareness film on combating terrorism and extremism at the end of the 44th virtual conference of Arab police and security chiefs.
April 12: Interior Ministry mourned policeman Saad Salem Nafaa who was martyred in a tragic accident while on duty.
April 14: Interior Ministry started receiving candidates for parliamentary by-elections for the fifth constituency.
April 26: Kuwait National Guard (KNG) received at Ali Al-Salem Airbase French-made Caracal helicopters, commissioned as the core of the guard’s fleet.
April 29: Kuwait Fire Force (KFF) controlled a fire at tires’ dumping ground in Al-Salmi area.
April 30: Interior Ministry mourned martyr Abdullah Al-Daihani who was killed in a tragic accident.
May 15: Firefighters control a huge fire that broke out at a scrapyard at Abdullah Port.
May 16: KFF announced the death of two workers in a fire at a three-storey commercial complex in Jahra.
June 8: Firefighters managed to put out a blaze at a 60,000-square-metre location in Jahra’s Amghara area.
June 14: Ministry of Interior evacuated 140 citizens and residents that were stuck on Failaka Island due to bad weather conditions.
June 19: Firefighters controlled a massive blaze at a warehouse in Shuwaikh Industrial area, which resulted the death of one person and injury of two others.
July 8: Customs Department foiled an attempt to smuggle 25,000 bags of Paan.
July 12: Customs Department seized 2.22 million Paan bags in three containers.
July 15: Ministry of Interior arrested a person possessing 1.2 pills of illegal drugs with a value of KD 2 million ($6.6 million).
July 20: A military transport plane arrived in Tunisia carrying 20 tons of oxygen.
July 25: Customs Department foiled an attempt to smuggle 1.4 million bags of Paan.
Aug 7: KFF, acting upon His Highness the Amir’s instructions, sent 90 firefighters to Turkey and Greece to help in fighting massive forest fires.
Aug 11: Customs Department seized 150 kilograms of hashish in a container.
Aug 14: Three people were killed and five injured in a fire in a workers’ residence in Abdali area.
Aug 17: Kuwait donated six fire engines to Algeria.
Aug 19: Kuwait donated six fire engines to Turkey.
Aug 20: KFF announced the death of five persons and injury of 15 others in a road accident.
Aug 23: Kuwait donated six fire engines to Tunisia.
Sept 8: Two workers were killed when a building at Kuwait Airport under construction collapsed.
Sept 23: Customs Department seized 1.221 tons of Paan.
Oct 12: Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah announced that Kuwaiti women would be allowed to register in military service.
Nov 2: Kuwait, Saudi and American forces conduct drills.
Nov 10: Customs Department seized 30 tons of Paan hidden in containers coming from a Gulf country.
Nov 21: Kuwait held military funeral for 19 martyrs who were found in mass graves in Iraq.
Nov 23: Interior Ministry seized 17 kilograms of narcotics smuggled inside live sheep coming from a neighboring country.
Nov 28: Three persons were killed and a child was injured in a fire reported in a house in Sulaibiya.
Dec 7: Kuwait received the first batch of Eurofighter Typhoon aircrafts from Italy.
Dec 8: Interior Ministry arrested individuals with 120,000 psychedelic pills.
Dec 9: Firefighters control a blaze erupting in Amghara.
Dec 14: Kuwait army received two Eurofighter Typhoon aircrafts. —KUNA