RIYADH/KUWAIT CITY, 23 November 2002 — Saudi authorities have arrested a Kuwaiti policeman accused of shooting two US soldiers in Kuwait, and plan to hand him over to Kuwaiti authorities, the official Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday.

It quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying arrangements had been made to extradite the suspect who fled across the border to Saudi Arabia after the soldiers were shot outside Kuwait City on Thursday.

The man, Khalid Mayser Al-Shammari, was arrested around 1 p.m. (1000 GMT), the source said without saying where.

The neighboring countries were discussing his extradition to Kuwait, the SPA news agency quoted another Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman as saying. A Saudi security source and a Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry source, both of whom asked not to be named, said procedures for handing over the suspect were under way. The two wounded soldiers were reported to be in serious but stable condition after being flown to a military hospital in Kuwait City.

Col. Rick Thomas, a spokesman at Camp Doha military base, told AFP earlier their condition was labeled “serious but stable” and their status remained the same. One was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder.

“I don’t think we’ve seen anything that indicates” it was an attack involving “Al-Qaeda or some other terrorist organization,” Thomas said. Asked if the shooting was considered an anti-American attack, Thomas said, “I think until we finish the joint investigation” with the Kuwaitis, the motive cannot be established.

Kuwaiti newspapers yesterday said the suspect was not affiliated with any religious group and that he had a history of psychological problems. A senior Kuwaiti security source told AFP the suspect “had been admitted to hospital three times for psychiatric treatment.”

A US military spokesman said on Thursday they were shot while traveling in a civilian vehicle between the Camp Doha military base on the northern outskirts of Kuwait City and Arifjan, 35 miles to the south of the capital. The incident was the latest in a series of incidents involving some of the 10,000 US troops training near the Iraqi border.