Six injured in US base lorry attack

A man in civilian clothes drove a pick-up truck into a group of soldiers on a United States military base in Kuwait today, injuring about six people.

Earlier reports suggested that between 10 and 15 were injured in the attack at the desert base of Camp Udairi.

A US military official said the soldiers were standing outside a store at the Camp Udairi in the Kuwait desert.

Lt Col. Larry Cox, a public affairs officer at the Coalition press office in Kuwait City, said there were no details about the injured, or where they were being treated.

“The driver hasn’t departed the camp,” Cox added.

The official Kuwait News Agency quoted an unidentified military source as saying the driver was being interrogated. The report did not offer any details about his identity.

A military official said the driver definitely was not an American, and did not appear to be a Kuwaiti.

It would not be uncommon for screened third-country nationals to be working at US military installations in Kuwait. More than half of the people in Kuwait are foreign workers, many of them from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and other Middle Eastern countries.

Camp Udairi is primarily a V Corps aviation base that is also used for maintenance and supply.

American troops and civilians have been killed or wounded in Kuwait in separate incidents since October.

On January 21, Islamic extremists were blamed for killing a San Diego computer contractor and injuring another American close to Camp Doha, where US forces are based.

A Kuwaiti policeman faces trial on charges of shooting and seriously wounding two US soldiers on November 21 after allegedly stopping their car on a highway.

In October, Muslim fundamentalists killed one US Marine and injured another on a Kuwaiti island. Other Marines killed the gunmen, who were religious extremists.

On March 23, a grenade attack killed two US officers and wounded 14 other soldiers at a 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait. US soldier Hasan Akbar, 32, is the only person being held in connection with that case.