KUWAIT, 27 October — Kuwait will seal off large portions of the country where its troops are holding military exercises with US and other foreign forces, an official said yesterday.
The measure comes after two attacks on US military personnel earlier this month in Kuwait.
Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmad Al-Rahmani said the decision was not linked “to what is going on in the region but for the security of the troops and the safety of civilians”.
The United States has been pouring weapons and equipment into Kuwait and the region for several months in what is seen as a preparation for a possible war against Iraq for allegedly developing weapons of mass destruction.
Earlier this month a US Marine was killed and another was wounded in what Kuwait said was a “terrorist” attack. Two Kuwaitis were killed in the incident on an island during an exercise by US forces.
The Defense Ministry has decided to close large sectors of northern and western Kuwait, where US and other troops have trained since Washington led the 1991 Gulf War which ended a seven-month Iraqi occupation.
The ban on people visiting the training area in northwest Kuwait is a “precautionary measure” aimed at safeguarding lives, Al-Rahmani said.
He said the area was popular with campers, bird hunters and shepherds. The war games are conducted with live ammunition and heavy military machines.
Al-Rahmani said the ban would be implemented on Nov. 2.
He said the restricted area was “very large and represented a quarter of the area of the state of Kuwait.”
Kuwait had said the two men responsible for the attack on the US Marines were trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. It subsequently announced the arrest of what it said was a 15-man cell which plotted the operation and was indirectly linked to the Al-Qaeda network.
The attack was followed by several non-fatal incidents involving American troops in the emirate, raising the level of concern in the small country which immediately ordered additional security measures for Westerners.
As temperatures drop toward 30 Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) in October from over 50 Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) in the summer, Kuwaitis and foreign residents set up desert camps in many areas including northern Kuwait close to the border with Iraq.
The United States currently has about 10,000 troops in Kuwait, including ground forces training in the desert, in addition to German and Czech anti-chemical warfare units.
The air forces of Britain and the United States have warplanes operating out of Kuwaiti bases to enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq.
