Kuwait to lift security net

Press, 15 December 1983, Page 6

Kuwait to lift security net

NZPA-Reuter Kuwait The Kuwaiti authorites are today expected to lift travel restrictions imposed on Middle East nationals after a series of bomb blasts rocked the small Gulf state on Monday. In the aftermath of the six explosions, the authorities banned Palestinians, Iraqis, Iranians, Jordanians, Lebanese, and Syrians from leaving Kuwait. Tight security checks were also imposed on immigrants. Official sources said that the search was continuing for those responsible for the bomb attacks on the American and French embassies. At least six people were killed and more than 60 injured in the attacks which also hit the international airport, an American residential compound, a government office and a vital industrial complex. Reliable sources said the trucks that carried the ex-

plosives used in the bombings had been rented from an Arab man who was believed to have left the country before the attacks. Worst-hit was the American Embassy, where a three-story administration building was devastated. The Charge d’Affaires, Mr Philip Griffin, said yesterday a local employee and two other people with a company working for the embassy had been killed. The bodies of two other people had also been found but they had not been identified. A sixth man was killed in the explosion at Kuwait airport. Kuwait boosted internal security after the blasts, which sent shock waves through the conservative Gulf states. Key Government buildings were under heavy guard, and increased protection around the American, French, British, and Italian

embassies—the four countries in the Beirut peacekeeping force—included armoured troop carriers with heavy machine-guns. The Kuwait parliament condemned the attacks as criminal. A Muslim extremist group, Islamic Jihad (Holy War), claimed responsibility. The Kuwait blasts shocked other Gulf states, already jittery over the course of the three-year war between Iran and Iraq. Gulf leaders quickly conferred by telephone and voiced support for Kuwait. Some diplomats said the attacks may strengthen the resolve of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, formed in 1981 partly as a result of the Islamic Revolution across the gulf in Iran. The council comprises Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and

Oman. The Islamic Jihad organisation yesterday threatened “violent acts all over Europe” if the multinational peace-keeping force and Israeli occupation troops were not withdrawn from Lebanon. The threat came in a telephone call to the E.F.E. news agency office in Barcelona by a man speaking with a strong Arab accent, said the agency. The Iraqi Information Agency, monitored in Manama, said Iraqi forces would bomb “selected Iranian targets" in response to the Kuwait attacks. Quoting an Iraqi military spokesman, it said the Kuwait attacks were Iran’s “latest crime.” In Teheran, the Iranian Oil Minister, Mr Mohammad Gharazi, threatened to seize under international law oil tankers and other “facilities” belonging to allies helping Iraq.