KUWAIT CITY, Jan 15 (AFP) - A suspected Saudi militant was killed Saturday in a clash with Kuwaiti security forces during a hunt for wanted extremists only days after a gunfight left two security officers dead.
"A wanted man was killed. He was a Saudi," Kuwaiti Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah told reporters outside a house stormed by security forces in Umm Al-Haiman, south of Kuwait City.
It was the first time a Saudi was identified as having been involved in such an incident in Kuwait.
"We arrested another (wanted militant)... and the rest fled," the minister said after the clashes, which erupted when security forces launched a hunt for suspected extremists in a key oil producing region. Two security officers were also wounded.
"The man killed carried a Saudi passport, while the one arrested is a Kuwaiti citizen," Sheikh Nawaf said.
"Those who fled do not number more than six," he said.
The militants sped away in two cars and security forces were out hunting for them, witnesses said.
Of the two security men slightly injured, one was an officer hit in the chest, said Sheikh Nawaf, adding that both were in stable condition.
The shootout dragged on intermittently for about three hours as militants moved from house to house and a hefty arms cache was confiscated.
"A large amount of weapons and ammunition" were seized, an interior ministry statement said, adding that security forces were continuing to comb the area and hunt down wanted militants.
Presumed Al-Qaeda militants have waged a campaign of violence in neighboring Saudi Arabia which has left more than 100 dead and hundreds more wounded since May 2003 despite a government crackdown.
Kuwaiti security forces had said police and special forces, backed by at least four helicopters, were involved in the operation to arrest militants believed linked to a gunfight Monday that left two security officers dead.
Umm Al-Haiman is 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Kuwait City and just 30 kilometers from the Saudi border.
The district lies in the middle of Kuwait`s lifeline oil industry where oil refineries, petrochemical industries, export terminals and pipeline networks are located.
OPEC member Kuwait sits on 10 percent of the world`s proven oil reserves and has a daily output of 2.3 million barrels per day.
Police have launched a major crackdown in the emirate since Monday`s attack carried out by suspected Islamist militants with links to the Al-Qaeda network.
One of the assailants, Fawaz al-Oteibi, was killed in the shootout in Hawalli, some 10 kilometers south of the capital, while up to three militants fled the scene.
Dozens of suspects have since been questioned and local media reported that about 50 people were being detained.
The US embassy warned its citizens on Monday that assailants in a black car driving around Kuwait planned to "randomly attack Westerners," in a message posted on the embassy website.
It called on "all US citizens to exercise caution, maintain a low profile, and avoid areas where Westerners are known to congregate."
The US mission had warned on December 15 it had "credible information that terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in the emirate in the near future.
01/15/2005 17:44 GMT - AFP