The attempted attack is the first by the Islamic State group to target American troops in the tiny, oil-rich emirate that’s a stalwart US ally.
It comes as authorities already increased security ahead of a major Shiite commemoration in the coming days. The state-run Kuwait News Agency identified the attacker as Ibrahim Sulaiman, born in 1988, and published a picture of the alleged assailant in a hospital bed, a bruise beneath his right eye.
KUNA said the five soldiers were not injured. It said Sulaiman had multiple fractures and injuries. It was not immediately clear if the Egyptian had a lawyer.
The KUNA report did not offer a location for the failed attack, though it published pictures of the aftermath of the crash showing a wrecked garbage truck, as well as items it described as a suicide belt loaded with shrapnel. The white pickup truck apparently carrying the soldiers had the left side of its bed smashed in. American forces and others have troops stationed at Kuwait’s Camp Arifjan.