U.S. Troops Shot At In Kuwait Again

Kuwaiti police searched Saturday for four people who fired guns near U.S. troops in the latest shooting involving American forces. But a U.S. diplomat played down the incident, suggesting the shots may have come from sport shooters.

Nobody was injured in the Friday incident, which occurred as Americans trained in the desert south of Kuwait City, officials said.

The U.S. military said the shots came from two white pickup trucks, each carrying two people. It was unclear what kind of weapons were used.

Early reports indicated four people were arrested, but U.S. authorities withdrew that account without explanation.

Efforts to contact Kuwaiti police spokesmen were unsuccessful. However, an American diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the shooting as a "recreational incident" involving young Kuwaitis firing weapons in the desert near Oraifijan, 35 miles south of Kuwait City.

Concern over the safety of U.S. troops here rose following the fatal shooting of a U.S. Marine and the wounding of another during an attack by Islamic extremists Oct. 8 on Failaka island. The two assailants were killed by other Marines.

Six says later, shots were fired near U.S. troops in the northwest desert. Kuwaiti officials said privately that they probably came from Bedouin hunters who were not trying to harm Americans.

On Saturday, the Kuwaiti government sealed off nearly a quarter of the country - including the area near the Iraqi border - saying the move was to safeguard civilians during ongoing military exercises in the country's northwestern desert.

But Kuwaiti officials say privately that the closure is also designed to protect U.S. troops. The shooting Friday, however, took place outside the closed area.

Attacks on U.S. military personnel have shocked Kuwaitis, who depend on Washington for protection from Iraq, which invaded this oil-rich country in 1990. A U.S.-led coalition drove out the Iraqis the following year.

Kuwait signed a defense pact with Washington after the Iraqis were defeated.

Many Kuwaiti fundamentalist leaders have said the young people who attacked U.S. troops were "misguided," and the number of militant extremists here is believed to be small.

Some 10,000 American forces are in Kuwait for routine desert training or maintaining equipment pre-positioned to defend the country. U.S. fighter jets use two Kuwaiti air bases to patrol a no-fly zone in southern Iraq.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, Meanwhile two U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan were attacked with rockets or mortars, but no injuries were reported, the U.S. military said Saturday.

One rocket exploded 500 yards from a base in the Deh Rahwod district in the central province of Uruzgan early Saturday, U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King told reporters. On July 1, U.S. bombs in that area killed more than 25 people attending a wedding. The U.S. said a plane had come under attack from people on the ground, although no anti-aircraft weapons were found.

Another U.S. base in Asadabad in the eastern province of Kunar also came under rocket or mortar fire late Friday.

Elsewhere, security officials in the eastern city of Jalalabad found two bombs connected to timers set to go off in a busy market area.

Authorities were unable to neutralize the bombs, but streets were blocked off around one before it detonated on its own.

A second bomb found nearby was taken to a secure location at an intelligence ministry compound where it exploded. Neither blast caused casualties.