Topic: Kuwait complains to Iraq about cross-border shooting

Media: The Associated Press
Byline:
Date: 23 August 2006


KUWAIT CITY_Kuwait's Foreign Ministry summoned the Iraqi charge d'affaires
Wednesday to complain about shooting at a police patrol from the Iraqi side
of their shared frontier.

Ministry undersecretary, Mohammed al-Roumi, informed the Iraqi diplomat,
Hamed al-Sharifi, that Kuwait was dismayed at the incident that occurred
Monday, the state-owned Kuwait News Agency said.

KUNA did not provide any further details about the shooting. Officials could
not be reached for comment.

The desert border was demarcated by the United Nations in 1993, two years
after the 1991 Gulf War that liberated this small oil-rich state from a
seven-month Iraqi occupation under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The new line gave Kuwait 11 oil wells, some farms and an old naval base
formerly considered in Iraq. Last summer, hundreds of Iraqis staged
demonstrations against a metal barrier Kuwait was building along the
frontier and shots were fired, but Kuwaiti border guards did not return
fire.

Iraq and Kuwait resumed diplomatic relations at a low-level and reopened
their border after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.