Egyptian Rams Truck Into U.S. Soldiers In Kuwait

A line of AH-64 Apache helicopters wait on the flight line at Camp Udairi, Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY, March 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An employee who rammed a truck into soldiers at a U.S. military camp in northern Kuwait, Sunday, March 30, is in critical condition after being shot at during the incident, a U.S. military spokesperson said.

Fifteen people were injured in the incident at Camp Udairi, one of whom suffered a knee injury while the remaining 14 had minor scrapes and resumed work, the spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The truck driver had sustained two gunshot wounds, to the upper chest and shoulder, and was in "critical condition," the spokesperson said.

A Kuwaiti security source meanwhile said the driver was an Egyptian electrician employed at the camp, adding "we don't know yet if it was an accident or an attack."

Kuwaiti security authorities are unable to get access to the man, who is still being investigated by U.S. Military Police, the source said.

Another security source had earlier described the truck driver as a disgruntled employee but stressed that the incident was not being regarded as a "terror" attack at this stage.

"Initial reports show there was a truck driven into a group of soldiers" in one of the many U.S. camps in the north of the country, U.S. army spokesman Colonel Gregory Julian said soon after the incident.

"We're trying to determine how many were involved and who was involved," Julian said.

A worker in the camp told Reuters he had heard the sound of shooting and ambulances had been called, adding the alleged attacker and an accomplice had been wounded by gunfire from U.S. troops and taken away in an ambulance.

Egyptian immigrant workers who had been working in a container-type structure nearby were dragged out, made to lie on the ground and were being questioned, Reuters said.

Last week, a U.S. soldier was detained for lobbing grenades into tents at a U.S. army camp in northern Kuwait, killing two servicemen and injuring some 11 others. The 13 casualties were all members of the elite 101st Airborne Division.

U.S. forces in Kuwait have been involved in a series of attacks, one fatal, since last October when two Kuwaiti gunmen killed a U.S. marine and wounded another during war games.

U.S.-led forces are on higher alert for this kind of attack after an Iraqi suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at a military checkpoint near the city of Najaf on Saturday, killing four soldiers. Iraqi authorities claimed the attack killed 11 U.S. troops.

Tens of thousands of U.S. troops are based in Kuwait, the main launch pad for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.