KUWAIT CITY, Jan 10 (AFP) - Kuwaiti security forces fatally wounded a wanted militant Monday in a deadly shootout in which two policemen were killed amid a US security alert, the interior ministry said.
The militant, named as Fawaz Talaiq al-Oteibi, died in hospital after the shootout which erupted as security men came to arrest him in a Kuwait City suburb, said an interior ministry statement.
Two other policemen were wounded in the firefight which came as the US embassy warned its nationals that militants at large in a car could "randomly attack Westerners" in the emirate.
Plainclothes police tried to arrest Oteibi as he went to return a rented car in Hawalli, some 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Kuwait City.
"The suspect fired at police and then fled to a car where a group of his friends were waiting ... One of the men in the car shot at the police killing two and wounding two others," the interior ministry said.
One of those killed was a first lieutenant.
Oteibi was arrested on the spot while militants in the car drove away and were being hunted by police, the ministry said.
The US embassy warned its citizens Monday that assailants in a black car driving around Kuwait planned to "randomly attack Westerners", in a message posted on the embassy website.
"The embassy is issuing this urgent message because it has received credible information that an individual or individuals moving about Kuwait in a black coloured small sedan intend to randomly attack Westerners," the message said.
It was not immediately known if the car used by militants was the same one mentioned in the US warning.
"Americans who encounter suspicious vehicles matching this description should quickly but safely move away and contact the Kuwaiti police emergency number at 777," it added.
The embassy called on "all US citizens to exercise caution, maintain a low profile, and avoid areas where Westerners are known to congregate".
It reminded American citizens "of the potential for further terrorist actions against US citizens abroad", including in the Gulf region.
Earlier on Monday, Kuwait began to ease tight security measures introduced almost two weeks ago when the emirate raised its state of alert almost to the maximum in the biggest show of force since the March 2003 launch of the US-led war in Iraq.
A Kuwaiti army spokesman said last Thursday that two Kuwaiti soldiers were to stand trial on suspicion of plotting attacks on US and other foreign forces in the country, which served as the main launchpad for the war.
The US embassy warned on December 15 it had "credible information that terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in the emirate in the near future.
US forces and civilians in Kuwait have been the target of a number of attacks, two of them fatal.
Around 25,000 US soldiers are stationed in Kuwait, which is used as a transit point for US and other coalition troops headed for Iraq.
Some 12,000 American civilians live in Kuwait alongside around 9,000 Europeans and some 1,000 Australians.
01/10/2005 19:44 GMT - AFP