KUWAIT CITY, 30 March 2003 — A low-flying Iraqi missile screamed across the Gulf early yesterday, avoiding the detection of US defense systems and landing just off the coast of Kuwait City, shattering windows at a popular seaside shopping mall.

Two people were treated for minor injuries after the 1:45 a.m. blast, the closest a missile has come to the Kuwaiti capital since US troops based in the emirate invaded neighboring Iraq on March 20.

“It came from the northeast part of the Gulf. It seemed to be traveling at a very low level,” so no air raid sirens sounded, Fire Chief Jassim Al-Mansouri said.

US Patriot missile batteries guard Kuwait against missile attacks by Iraq. In Doha, Qatar, the US Central Command said it was investigating.

The missile struck a small pier in front of the Souq Sharq mall — a multilevel shopping center with department stores, restaurants, theaters and Western-style shops.

The explosion shattered windows, blasted a glass door at the front of the mall and blew out huge chunks of plaster from the adjacent parking structure.

An Egyptian and a Kuwaiti were treated for injuries at a nearby hospital and released, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.

The missile was manufactured in Iraq and launched from southern Iraq, military spokesman Col. Youssef Al-Mullah told KUNA. It “was from the family of Silkworm missiles which the Iraqi regime developed,” he said.

Al-Mullah said the missile did not have an unconventional warhead, and there was writing in Arabic on one of its fragments.

He said the type of missile can be launched from a mobile battery and has the range of 90 kilometers to 200 kilometers.

Iraq hides these missiles in residential buildings in southern Iraq, he added. Kuwait City is about 80 kilometers from the Iraqi border.

It was the 16th missile Iraq has fired at Kuwait since the war began, said Information Minister Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah. None have contained chemical or biological weapons, or caused significant damage. At least three have been destroyed by Patriots, US officials said.

“Some missiles we cannot detect with our missile defense system,” Al-Sabah said. “This kind of missile flies very low.”

The deputy prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, told KUNA later that Kuwait has deployed a missile defense system to intercept missiles like the one that hit near the mall. He did not provide any details.

The mall is about a kilometer from Sief Palace, the official seat of the emir of Kuwait. The emir lives in Dasman Palace, about 3 kilometers farther away.

Air raid sirens have sounded repeatedly in the last week, cautioning the 2.3 million residents of the country to take cover. A US-led force in 1991 liberated Kuwait from an Iraqi invasion and many here voiced anger at Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“My heart is still pounding,” said Batoul Tabtabai, a 40-year-old housewife who had been shopping at a 24-hour supermarket about 200 meters from the blast. “May God take revenge on Saddam. There will be no security as long as he is alive.”

Some onlookers celebrated the lack of major damage by gathering and singing around Ali Al-Sebai, an Egyptian-American musician who was visiting Kuwait.