Kuwaiti confesses to shooting Americans

A KUWAITI civil servant has confessed to opening fire on two Americans in Kuwait, killing one and wounding the other.

Authorities have found the weapon he used, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

A Kuwaiti security officer said the suspect, Sami al-Mutairi, 25, was not working alone. The Interior Ministry said he had claimed he followed the ideals of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network.

Al-Mutairi was arrested at the border in Saudi Arabia as he tried to flee and was extradited to Kuwait, the ministry said. His weapon and some ammunition was found at his workplace, according to the statement. It did not say where he worked.

“He confessed that he committed the crime of assassinating the American citizen and injuring another,” the ministry statement said, adding without explanation that al-Mutairi became a suspect in the first hours after the crime was committed.

The security officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Mutairi was arrested by Saudi border guards on Wednesday. The official said he was a Kuwaiti civil servant and the prime suspect, but that he “had partners, maybe two”.

The official Saudi Press Agency had said border guards arrested the suspect early on Wednesday and “the initial investigation revealed he was the assailant who fired on the American citizens”.

Earlier yesterday, US Embassy spokesman John Moran said the US hoped investigators would quickly determine whether the assailants have ties to any larger organisation.

“We call on the government to do everything in its power to protect our citizens from terrorist attack and to prevent any further tragedies,” he said.

The Interior Ministry statement did not say al-Mutairi was an al-Qaida member, noting only “he was interrogated and he confessed he adopts the thought of al-Qaida organisation”.

The shooting was the first assault on US civilians in Kuwait and the third on Americans since October in the oil-rich emirate, where pro-American sentiment is usually strong and where thousands of US troops are assembling ahead of a possible war on Iraq.

In Tuesday’s attack, a gunman hiding behind a hedge ambushed the sport utility vehicle carrying two civilian contractors working for the US military. The attack took place at a junction about three miles from the US military’s Camp Doha, which is 10 miles west of Kuwait City.

The survivor, David Caraway, was in stable condition yesterday at al-Razi hospital in Kuwait City. His co-worker Michael Rene Pouliot, 46, was killed.

Mr Caraway said he remembered little of the attack beyond a barrage of machine-gun fire coming from behind bushes along the road.