Iraq blasts Kuwait over ship seizures

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) -- Iraqi authorities told Kuwait on Friday it was "playing with fire" in seizing five vessels loaded with goods shipped from Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions.

An Iraqi Culture and Information Ministry spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), said the seizure was a foolish act that again confirmed Kuwait was acting as an Israeli-U.S. police force in the Gulf.

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"The Kuwaiti regime's repeated hindering of commercial navigation in the Gulf reveals that the Kuwaiti rulers...have appointed themselves Zionist-American police," the spokesman said.

"They don't want to understand upto now that what they are doing is a very dangerous act and that they should stop playing with fire," he added.

The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the wooden ships were carrying 520 goats, 402 sheep, 872 tons of Iraqi dates and other goods.

Fifty-one sailors of various nationalities were arrested when the vessels were stopped in Kuwaiti territorial waters.

An international force led by U.S. warships patrols the narrow Gulf waterway to enforce strict U.N. sanctions imposed against Iraq since its 1990 invasion of fellow Kuwait.

The U.S.-led 1991 Gulf War ended the Iraqi occupation.

So far this year, Kuwait has seized some 25 vessels trying to smuggle oil and other products out of Iraq.

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