Americans Shot Near Kuwait City

One American was shot dead today and another was injured on a road leading to Camp Doha, a warehouse complex north of Kuwait City which has been a major US military base since the Gulf war.

Both men were civilian contractors for the US military, according to John Moran, a spokesman for the US embassy in Kuwait. One man died of multiple gunshot wounds and the other was wounded, Mr Moran said.

He said unidentified assailants opened fire on the men's vehicle as they drove on highway 85 north of Kuwait City near Camp Doha, which serves as a base for some 17,000 US troops based in the oil-rich Gulf nation.

Kuwait, which borders Iraq, was invaded by Saddam Hussein's regime in 1990, which triggered the Gulf war. Tensions around the region are currently increasing because of the expectation of a second US-led confrontation with Iraq, which Washington alleges is hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Tens of thousands more US and British troops are expected in Kuwait in the build-up to a possible war against Iraq.

In recent months other Americans have also come under attack in Kuwait, a key US ally in the Gulf. On October 9 last year a US marine was killed and a second was wounded when two Kuwaiti Muslim fundamentalists opened fire on a group of US marines taking a break from training. The attackers were killed by other marines.

Then on November 21 last year, a Kuwaiti policeman shot and seriously injured two US soldiers after stopping their car on a highway. Kuwaiti officials said the policeman was mentally disturbed.