UMM AL-HAIMAN, Kuwait, 16 January 2005 — A gunman was killed and two Kuwaiti policemen wounded when security forces clashed with militants in southern Kuwait yesterday, the Interior Ministry said. At least one gunman was captured during the firefight in Umm Al-Haiman as security sources surrounded a group of suspected Islamist militants, the ministry said.
“A big cache of weapons, explosives and munitions was also seized with the gunmen,” it added in a statement. Security sources said the Interior Ministry had now put all security forces on alert across the tiny oil-rich nation, which controls 10 percent of global petroleum reserves.
“A wanted man was killed. He was a Saudi,” Kuwaiti Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told reporters outside the house stormed by security forces. It was the first time a Saudi was identified as having been involved in such an incident in Kuwait. “We arrested another (wanted militant) ... and the rest fled,” the minister said after the clashes, which erupted when security forces launched a hunt for suspected extremists in a key oil-producing region. Two security officers were also wounded.
“The man killed carried a Saudi passport, while the one arrested is a Kuwaiti citizen,” Sheikh Nawaf said. “Those who fled do not number more than six,” he said. The militants sped away in two cars and security forces were out hunting for them, witnesses said. Of the two security men slightly injured, one was an officer hit in the chest, said Sheikh Nawaf, adding that both were in stable condition.
The shootout dragged on intermittently for about three hours as militants moved from house to house and a hefty arms cache was confiscated.
Kuwaiti security forces had said police and special forces, backed by at least four helicopters, were involved in the operation to arrest militants believed linked to a gunfight Monday that left two security officers dead. Umm Al-Haiman is 70 kilometers south of Kuwait City and just 30 kilometers from the Saudi border.
The district lies in the middle of Kuwait’s lifeline oil industry where oil refineries, petrochemical industries, export terminals and pipeline networks are located. OPEC member Kuwait sits on 10 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and has a daily output of 2.3 million barrels per day.
The sources said Kuwaiti forces had raided desert camps near Umm Al-Haiman on Friday night, and information from arrested militants had led to them to the group involved in yesterday’s firefight. “A security force this afternoon ... surrounded gunmen and clashed with them in Umm Al-Haiman while undertaking its duties in pursuing outlaws and wanted suspects,” the Interior Ministry said. The prime minister and other top officials visited the scene, it added.
