- KUWAIT (Reuters) - A Kuwaiti
policeman shot and seriously wounded two U.S. soldiers on Thursday, the
Kuwaiti government said, in the latest in a series of shootings targeting
U.S. troops training in the country.
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- The interior ministry said in a statement that the attacker
was a junior policeman who fled across the border to Saudi Arabia after
shooting the soldiers.
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- "The culprit of this criminal act fled to...Saudi
Arabia and coordination is under way with security authorities in the kingdom
to arrest and hand him over," the statement said.
-
- A U.S. military spokesman said the two soldiers were
shot around 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) while traveling between the Camp Doha
military base on the northern outskirts of Kuwait City and Arifjan, 35
miles to the south of the capital.
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- They were traveling in a civilian vehicle when they were
stopped and shot.
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- "They are in a serious but stable condition. One
of them was shot in the face, the other in the shoulder. Neither injury
is life-threatening," the U.S. spokesman said.
-
- The soldiers were flown to a military hospital in Kuwait
City for treatment.
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- Some 10,000 U.S. troops are in Kuwait for the Operation
Desert Spring training exercise. Earlier this month, Kuwait sealed off
large portions of the country to safeguard the security of the military
exercises.
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- Last month two Kuwaitis attacked U.S. Marines training
on a Kuwaiti island, killing one and wounding another.
-
- Since then, there have been several reports of shots
fired at U.S. soldiers training in the desert, although some Kuwaiti officials
blame bird hunters.
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- The incidents coincide with mounting tension over a possible
U.S.-led war in neighboring Iraq -- likely to feature U.S. troops based
in Kuwait -- if Iraq does not satisfy Washington's demand that it prove
itself free of weapons of mass destruction.
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- Iraq insists it has no chemical, biological or nuclear
arms.
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- Kuwaiti Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah
condemned the attack and said it would not hurt strong ties with the United
States.
-
- "This incident is alien to Kuwaiti society, and
the people share the government's position about seeking help from the
American forces to bolster Kuwait's security and independence," he
was quoted as saying by the state-run KUNA news agency.
-
- "No individual or individuals involved in criminal
acts can change this fact and impose their sick objectives on Kuwait. This
incident will not affect continued defense cooperation with the United
States but instead will encourage further security coordination... and
boost preemptive measures.
-
- In the aftermath of the October 8 attack that killed
a Marine training on a Kuwaiti island, Kuwait said it had rounded up a
15-man cell which had plotted the attack and which was indirectly linked
to Osama bin Laden 's al Qaeda network.
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- Marines shot and killed the two attackers.
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- Kuwaiti security sources say a number of suspected al
Qaeda members have been arrested in Kuwait following the capture two weeks
ago of 21-year-old Mohsen al-Fadhli, alleged to be a senior al Qaeda operative
in the region.
-
- They say Fadhli was a key member of an al Qaeda cell
planning to bomb a hotel in Yemen and that during interrogation he had
also provided information about the October 6 attack in Yemen which gutted
the French supertanker Limburg.
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