Kuwaiti police, islamic militants clash
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-31 16:19

Kuwaiti police stormed a house of suspected terrorists on Monday, setting off a shootout that killed several people, police said. It was the second straight day of clashes with Islamic militants.

Four police officers were wounded in Monday's clash in al-Qurain, a residential district of Kuwait City, said a police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He did not give an exact number of deaths, but said that several people were killed.

Kuwait State Security policemen arrive at the scene of a gun battle in Kuwait City on Sunday, Jan 30, 2005. [AP]

State-run Kuwait Television reported that militants killed a civilian in the shootout, but this was could not be immediately confirmed. The clash was continuing mid-morning Monday with security forces pursuing suspected terrorists around the al-Qurain neighborhood.

Monday's raid came a day after security forces battled militants in another residential district of the capital in a clash that killed three people — a terrorists suspect, a police officer, and a Bahraini person who was not a suspect.

Kuwait, a major ally of the United States, has been battling Islamic fundamentalists who oppose the presence of American forces in their country.

Monday's shootout was the fourth this month between security forces and suspected terrorists. Clashes on Jan. 10 and 15 resulted in the deaths of two suspects and two police offers.

Authorities have arrested more than 25 Kuwaiti and Saudi suspects since the Jan. 15 clashes. Seven detainees, including a woman, have been referred to prosecutors for planning terrorist attacks or failing to report such plans to the police.

Last week, the U.S. and British embassies warned their citizens to be vigilant as further militant attacks were possible.

Kuwait has had close ties with Washington since 1991 when a U.S.-led coalition liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation. The country was the launch pad for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. It remains a logistics base for U.S. troops serving in Iraq.

Since 2002, fundamentalists have carried out several attacks against Americans in Kuwait, killing one U.S. Marine and a civilian contracted to the U.S. military.

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