KUWAIT CITY, Dec 15 (AFP) - The United States warned on Wednesday that "terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in the Gulf Arab state of Kuwait in the near future.
The US embassy has "credible information that terrorist groups are developing near-term plans for attacks against unspecified targets in Kuwait," the embassy said in a warden message circulated to US nationals in the emirate.
The message urged Americans to exercise caution, maintain a low profile and avoid areas where Westerners are known to congregate.
Some 12,000 American civilians live in Kuwait, where about 25,000 US troops are stationed.
The soldiers are deployed at one major base in Arifjan, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Kuwait City, and several desert camps in the north and northwest of the country, near the border with Iraq.
Kuwait is used as a transit point for US and other coalition troops coming in and out of Iraq.
Europeans in Kuwait number 9,000, and there are also some 1,000 Australians living in the emirate.
The United States has repeatedly warned its citizens of the threat of attacks in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which has been rocked by a wave of terror strikes attributed to Al-Qaeda militants since May 2003, most recently against the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Kuwait boosted security measures around major Western embassies after the December 6 Jeddah attack, in which five non-American staff members were killed.
The last time the US embassy here issued a warning to American residents of Kuwait was in late July when Kwuaiti security forces were cracking down on Islamists suspected of recruiting anti-US fighters for Iraq. It urged them at the time to increase security precautions.
The last attack against an American target in Kuwait occurred exactly a year ago, on December 14, 2003, when four US soldiers had sustained minor injuries in two attacks with small arms fire against their convoys south of Kuwait City.
12/15/2004 21:36 GMT - AFP