Two Kuwaiti security men killed in shootout
Pakistan Times Wire Service

KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait): Two Kuwaiti security men were killed and two others wounded in a shootout with gunmen in a suburb south of the capital on Monday, said sources.

"A security source announced that two security men were killed and two others wounded in a shootout with gunmen in Hawally," state-run TV announced Monday, without providing further details.

A security source said that one of those killed was a first lieutenant in the police. The two injured were also both policemen, one of them left in critical condition, the source said.

The US embassy in Kuwait earlier Monday warned its citizens that assailants in a black car driving around Kuwait planned to "randomly attack Westerners", in a message posted on the embassy website.

Perspective

Staunch US ally Kuwait last week raised its state of alert almost to the maximum, boosting security around the country in the biggest show of force since the March 2003 launch of the US-led war in Iraq.

A Kuwaiti army spokesman said last Thursday that two Kuwaiti soldiers were to stand trial on suspicion of plotting attacks on US and other foreign forces in the country, which served as the main launchpad for the war.

The US embassy warned on December-15 it had "credible information that terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in the emirate in the near future.●