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Report: Saudis arrest Kuwaiti accused of shooting U.S. soldiersSuspect to be extradited to Kuwait
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi authorities have arrested a Kuwaiti policeman accused of shooting two U.S. soldiers, the Saudi Press Agency reported Friday. According to the report, arrangements are being made to extradite the man, identified as Khaled Al-Shemiry, to Kuwait. He is accused of stopping a civilian vehicle outside Kuwait City and shooting two U.S. soldiers, who were not in uniform. Kuwaiti authorities said the man then fled to Saudi Arabia. One soldier was shot in the face, and another was hit in the shoulder. They were in serious but stable condition Friday. Sources told CNN it's unclear whether the incident was an individual act or was linked to a terrorist group. The shooting took place about 10:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. EST) as the U.S. soldiers were traveling between Camp Doha -- a U.S. military base -- and Oraifijan, a U.S. military spokesman said. The soldiers' injuries are not considered life-threatening, the spokesman said, adding that they were able to drive themselves to Oraifijan, where they were flown by military aircraft to a military hospital in Kuwait City. Apparently U.S. soldiers in the area do not wear uniforms when they are traveling off-base in order to maintain a low profile, the spokesman said.
Their names are not being released, U.S. military sources said. U.S. and Kuwaiti authorities are investigating the shooting. According to the Pentagon, about 10,000 U.S. troops are in Kuwait conducting regularly scheduled military exercises dubbed Operation Desert Spring, at a time when the United States has been threatening military action against nearby Iraq if it fails to abide by post-Persian Gulf War resolutions calling on Baghdad to destroy any weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has repeatedly denied possessing such weapons. Latest in series of attacksThe shooting is the latest in a string of attacks and threats against U.S. soldiers stationed in Kuwait and came the same day that a U.S. missionary was shot and killed in Lebanon. (Full story) On October 8, two Kuwaiti gunmen suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network carried out an attack against U.S. troops on Failaka Island, killing one Marine and injuring another. U.S. military police chased down the two assailants, who were dressed in civilian clothes and driving a pickup truck, and shot them dead, according to U.S. officials. The day of that attack, an audiotaped message surfaced that purportedly contained bin Laden's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, vowing new attacks on Americans. On November 12, the Qatar-based Arabic-language TV network Al-Jazeera broadcast an audiotape later identified as containing the voice of bin Laden referring to the killing of a U.S. Marine in Kuwait. After the October attack, there were two more shootings involving U.S. troops in Kuwait, but no one was injured. CNN's Kevin Sites and Hugh Williams contributed to this report.
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