| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Kuwaiti Points Gun at U.N. Observers |
| 2003-01-27 |
| A Kuwaiti soldier at a military checkpoint near the border with Iraq pointed his gun at two British U.N. observers Monday, said something to them in Arabic, laughed, and walked away leaving them shaken but unharmed, a spokesman for the U.N. mission said. Daljeet Bagga, the spokesman, said the two British observers in civilian clothes, who were riding in a U.N. vehicle, were "a bit shaken by the incident." The incident took place less than a week after a suspected Kuwaiti Muslim extremist ambushed two American civilians in their car, spraying them with gun fire. Bagga said the soldier "pointed a gun at the shoulder of the officer on the driver's side and then to his head." The British observers were "surprised and took out their IDs," and the man said something in Arabic, which they did not understand, and "went away from the scene," he said. He did not identify the observers. The observers reported the incident to Kuwaiti authorities, Bagga said. A spokesman for the Kuwaiti military played down the incident. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said pointing the gun "didn't mean (the soldier) was going to fire his gun," and he expected the observers to understand that he was just "taking a precautionary measure." The papers seem to be making a big deal of this story, it's like "Oh,my god, they're threatening the mighty UN!". If you read the entire story, you see that all that happened was a car carrying UN types drove up to a checkpoint, a guard came up to the vehicle and covered them with his weapon while checking their IDs. Soon as he checked their ID and saw they were UN types, he laughed and let them go. At the most, he was guilty of poor weapons handling. At the best, he scared the crap out of two UN weenies, and made my day. |
| Posted by:Steve |