KUWAIT CITY, 4 December 2002 — A US serviceman and two Kuwaiti coast guards were wounded yesterday when an Iraqi ship opened fire on two Kuwaiti vessels on patrol in coastal waters, the Al-Rai Al-Am newspaper reported.
The paper gave no explanation for the presence of US military personnel aboard what the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry had previously described as a routine patrol near the northern island of Warba.
“An Iraqi boat opened fire on two Kuwaiti coast guard boats near Warba,” 70 km north of Kuwait City, the ministry had said in a statement earlier carried by the official KUNA news agency.
There were no casualties from the shooting but one coast guard was slightly hurt when the two Kuwaiti boats collided as a result, it said.
The coast guard patrol was “caught by surprise” by the 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) attack, but returned fire until the small Iraqi boat retreated, an Interior Ministry official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He said he did not know the type of Iraqi boat involved.
Such incidents along the Kuwaiti-Iraqi land and naval borders haven’t been unheard of since the Gulf war, but few have been reported in recent years.
The Interior Ministry official said no extra precautions were being taken in light of yesterday’s incident.
“We have no confirmation of this incident,” Daljeet Bagga, the spokesman for the observers said. “We are still investigating.”
Bagga said several UNIKOM officers are on Warba Island, which falls on the Kuwaiti side of the demilitarized area along the border. Warba is separated from the Iraqi mainland by a narrow channel. US Embassy spokesman John Moran said only that the shooting incident was “something we are looking into.”
A US official said in Washington yesterday the United States is looking into Kuwait’s claim that an Iraq vessel opened fire on two Kuwaiti patrol boats but believes that the severity of the incident may have been overstated. (Agencies)
