Kuwait steps up security in case of possible war

KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwait plans to step up street patrols and security at key facilities in the face of possible war with its neighbor Iraq. Meanwhile, Westerners were considering advice from their governments to leave Kuwait.

Special police forces traversed the city Saturday in armored vehicles in a test of the new security plan.

A joint force of police, army and National Guards will conduct patrols and guard vital installations, the government has said. Their state of alert will be upgraded gradually, reaching the highest level if a war starts.

"The geographical position of our country makes it mandatory for us to be cautious and alert," Kuwait's interior minister, Sheik Mohammed Al Khaled Al Sabah, was quoted as saying in the Sunday edition of Al-Rai Al-Amm newspaper.

This nation of 2.3 million is bracing for retaliation by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if he is targeted. Baghdad said this week it could consider attacking Kuwait if it is used as a launch pad if President Bush decides to use force to strip Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. Some 30,000 American troops are now here, a third of the total buildup in the region.

An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new security measures will begin in mid-February.

Civil Defense has been testing sirens, conducting evacuation drills and directing Kuwaitis to prepare a sealed room in every home.

"We are in the eye of the storm, this (increased security) will serve as a deterrence," said Tarik al-Obeid, a 30-year-old environmental specialist. "We have a dangerous fifth column of (Osama) bin Laden followers, and Iraqi agents waiting for the zero hour to carry out sabotage attacks."

Authorities announced last month they had arrested a Kuwaiti soldier who was allegedly spying for Iraq and gathering intelligence on military movements and senior Kuwaiti officials.

There have been three serious attacks on Americans since October in Kuwait. Two of the shootings, which killed one U.S. Marine and one businessmen who was contracted to the U.S. military, were either carried out by Muslim extremists or blamed on them.

The shootings, the latest of which took place Jan. 21, prompted the State Department to strongly urge American private citizens to consider departing Kuwait. Few seem to be packing their bags now.

"If the ambassador tells the citizens to leave, they will leave," said Nick Forbes, an architect from Little Rock, Ark. The 43-year-old said his wife and children were going home on holiday but he hasn't decided if he was joining them.

Some 8,000 American civilians live in Kuwait, which owes its 1991 liberation from a seven-month Iraqi occupation to a U.S.-led coalition that fought the Gulf War to evict Iraqi occupiers.