Missile lands near Kuwait City mall, two hurt

3.00pm

UPDATE - An Iraqi missile evaded Kuwaiti defence systems and came down near a seafront shopping mall in Kuwait City today, injuring two people, Kuwaiti officials said.

It was the first time since the US-led invasion of neighbouring Iraq a week ago that a missile had landed so close to Kuwait City. Most missiles have been intercepted by Patriot batteries but this rocket appeared to skim in below the radar.

Debris was strewn around the mall, including what appeared to be the tailfin of a missile, and a smell of smoke hung in the night air in the early hours. There was damage to the front and roof of a cinema building in the mall complex.

The official Kuwait News Agency said two people had been injured -- a Kuwaiti man whose leg was broken and an Egyptian who suffered a broken shoulder.

Officials said the missile was probably a Chinese-built Silkworm ship-to-ship missile that had been fired from the vicinity of the Faw peninsula in Iraq. They said it had skimmed low over the sea and so had evaded detection by radar.

"We are prepared for this kind of terrorism from the Iraqi regime and everyone residing in this country is prepared for these circumstances," Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah told Kuwaiti state television.

A team of Czech military chemicals weapons experts wearing full protective suits and gas masks arrived at the scene after the blast, but Kuwaiti officials later said the missile had no chemical or biological payload.

A policeman at the scene told Reuters he had seen a missile land in the sea. Other witnesses said the missile appeared to fly in over the sea from the direction of the Faw peninsula.

Mohammed al-Misfir, a Kuwaiti man who was in the area at the time of the blast, said: "We were very lucky. Normally at this time the cinema is open. But because of the war, it has been closed so no-one was hurt."

Naval patrol boats chugged slowly up and down the sea beside the mall, apparently looking for fragments of the missile.

Several rockets have been launched at Kuwait from Iraq since the U.S.-led war against Iraq began. Kuwaiti officials say previous missiles launched at Kuwait have all been shot down by Patriot batteries or landed harmlessly in unpopulated areas.

Kuwait was the launchpad of the US and British ground war against Iraq, which began on March 20. US troops have been based in Kuwait since they drove Iraqi forces out of the country in the 1991 Gulf War after a seven-month occupation.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq