Posted on 09/29/2001 2:30:28 AM PDT by kattracks
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A Kuwaiti interior ministry official confirmed Saturday that four Iraqi spies were arrested last week after allegedly being sent to "survey and locate" US forces in the emirate.
The ministry's undersecretary, Lt. Gen. Nasser al-Othman, told Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper that four Iraqi intelligence officers were arrested last week in two separate operations.
The four men "confessed during interrogation that they were instructed to survey US sites and other vital installations, and were also instructed to spread rumours and provoke divisions in (Kuwaiti) society," said Othman.
Iraq on Thursday denied media reports that four of its officers had been arrested after being sent to spy on US forces in Kuwait.
"It is a new lie ... aimed at prejudicing Iraq to serve suspect objectives in the context of hostile US policies toward Iraq and all Arab nations," the Al-Iraq satellite television channel said.
Al-Rai Al-Aam daily on Thursday quoted senior security sources as saying two Iraqi intelligence officers were arrested Tuesday, following the arrests of two others earlier in the week.
Iraq "has got us accustomed to lies," said Othman in response to Iraq's denial.
"But we will broadcast, in front of the local, Arab and international public, all the facts after the completion of investigations with the four Iraqi intelligence officers," said Othman.
The daily also quoted sources as saying confessions by two of the Iraqi officers would be broadcasted Saturday evening on Kuwait Television.
"This is not the first time Iraq tries to disturb the security and stability of neighbouring countries," said Othman.
"There is a lot of evidence of this, either through Iraqi networks which have been discovered in Kuwait over the past few years, or those infiltrations against our brothers in Saudi Arabia," he added.
Kuwait is home to around 4,500 US military personnel as well as stockpiled equipment, while US and British aircraft patrol Iraq from Kuwait on an almost daily basis.
Kuwait frequently announces the capture of Iraqis trying to slip into the emirate despite the presence of a trench, a sand wall and an electric fence along its 200-kilometer-long (124-mile-long) land border with Iraq. The two countries also share a 40-kilometre-long (25-mile-long) sea border.
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