Threat of war brings attacks

KUWAIT CITY -- A Kuwaiti traffic policeman shot and seriously wounded two U.S. Army soldiers Thursday on a highway south of here, the Kuwaiti government said. The incident was the latest in a string of attacks on American troops as the United States prepares for a possible war in Iraq.\nA statement by the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said the policeman, who was identified only as a junior officer in the highway patrol, fled to Saudi Arabia after the shooting.\nOfficials said they had no details about the policeman's motive. One Kuwaiti official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the policeman apparently flagged down the Americans' car, ostensibly for speeding.\nThe shooting took place about 10:30 a.m. while the victims were traveling between the U.S. military base of Camp Doha and the town of Oraifijan, some 35 miles south of Kuwait City, a U.S. military spokesman said on condition of anonymity.\nOne soldier was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder, the spokesman said. Both victims, who remain unidentified, were airlifted to a Kuwaiti military hospital where their conditions were said to be serious but not life-threatening.\nThe U.S. spokesman said the soldiers, who were wearing civilian clothes and riding in a civilian vehicle, did not return fire. The victims managed to drive to Oraifijan, where they had been headed on "official business," before being flown to hospital. The U.S. military maintains a camp in the Oraifijan area.\nIn Prague, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the attack was not necessarily linked to the U.S. military buildup in Kuwait in anticipation of possible military action against Iraq.\n"There have been terrorist attacks in that region for my entire adult lifetime, and that's a long time," said the 70-year-old defense secretary, who was attending the NATO summit in the Czech capital.\nThe attack is the latest in a series of incidents involving U.S. troops in this oil-rich nation which borders Iraq. On Oct. 8, two Islamic fundamentalists shot and killed a U.S. Marine and wounded another on the island of Failaka. Both attackers were killed by other Marines.\nSix days later, the U.S. military reported that shots were fired at its troops from two civilian vehicles in Kuwait's northwest, which the government closed off to civilians early this month.\nOn Nov. 1, shots were fired in the vicinity of U.S. soldiers training near Oraifijan but there were no injuries. U.S. and Kuwaiti officials downplayed the incident, suggesting the shots were fired by hunters and were not directed against the Americans.\nAbout 10,000 U.S. military personnel are based in Kuwait under a defense pact signed between both countries following the 1991 Gulf War, during which an American-led coalition drive Iraqi invaders from the country.\nWhile Kuwait owes its independence and security to U.S. forces, anti-American sentiment is rising here and elsewhere in the Middle East because of U.S. support for Israel, the war against terrorism and threats of an American attack on Iraq.