KUWAIT CITY, 24 November 2005 — Kuwait’s coast guard announced yesterday that it arrested four Iraqis on charges of naval piracy within the country’s territorial waters, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.
The arrests were made after a series of reported piracy incidents where armed men had been robbing Kuwaiti boats and fishermen at sea.
A Kuwaiti patrol spotted the suspects cruising off the coast and ordered them to stop. The suspects ignored the order and sped away and were witnessed dumping a cache of weapons into the sea, Maj. Gen. Mubarak Al-Umairi, director of Kuwaiti naval formations, told reporters.
The patrol fired at the fleeing vessel and knocked out its engines, he said. Once in custody the suspects confessed to robbing Kuwaiti vessels at sea, Al-Umairi added, noting that the vessel they used belonged to a Kuwaiti who had reported it stolen six months ago.
