KUWAIT CITY, 2 February 2003 — Expatriates in Kuwait are mulling the option of leaving as the emirate implements unprecedented security measures and US troops pour in by the tens of thousands in preparation for a possible war with Iraq.
Special security units were positioned along major roads and highways around Kuwait yesterday, effectively placing the country on a war footing a day after the US Embassy advised citizens to consider leaving.
Americans in Kuwait “should evaluate rigorously their own security situation and are strongly urged to consider departing,” the embassy’s latest warning said. Non-essential US diplomats and the families of all personnel were also authorized to leave at government expense.
The warning was directly related to the highway ambush last month that killed US civilian contractor Michael Rene Pouliot and seriously wounded another US citizen, David Caraway.
The gunman, Kuwaiti Sami Mohammed Marzook Al-Mutairi, was arrested and “confessed he embraced the ideas of Al-Qaeda,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The shooting was the third serious attack, and the second fatal, against Americans in the emirate, and the first to target civilians.
The latest embassy warning appears to have snowballed and other foreign embassies are reportedly following suit, although the British Embassy has not yet decided to advise citizens to leave.
“The general view seems to be that the Americans have put the cat amongst the pigeons,” said one warden of a foreign embassy, requesting anonymity. “As of Friday, people were actually quite cool, but now they’ve been spooked.”
The combination of security developments has created more anxiety among expatriates, especially Westerners, who have remained calm despite the spate of shooting incidents since October and the massive US troop buildup here. People driving to work yesterday morning saw tanks and other armored vehicles along main roads, manned by personnel from the Interior Ministry, army and National Guard.
Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammed Khalid Al-Sabah has said the measures were taken to prevent the possibility of terrorist attacks in the event of a US-led war against Iraq.
Newspapers this weekend cited the minister as saying that Kuwait is a safe country from where foreigners will not be evacuated. “We will try and stop any (terrorist) attempts and we will be ready for that,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
However, expats said they felt insecure. They are not only faced with the prospect of a war against Iraq, for which it is increasingly likely Kuwait will be used as a main launch pad, but the possibility of reprisals by Kuwaiti extremists against Westerners.
Last October, two Kuwaiti gunmen killed a US Marine and wounded another. (AFP)
