Posted on 09/29/2001 5:13:42 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
KUWAIT, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Two suspected Iraqi intelligence agents were shown on Kuwait state television on Saturday saying they had spied on military and civilian targets in Kuwait.
The television broadcast the confession by the two Iraqi men whom it identified as Hussein Mehdi, 18, and Raed Khalaf 18.
"The task that I was given was to survey military sites, civilian sites and the movement of the military inside Kuwait," Raed Khalaf said.
"My mission was to assess the numbers of the military in Kuwait and the numbers of the military on the border," Hussein Mehdi said.
The men did not name their targets but a local newspaper quoted a senior security official as saying they included U.S. military installations in the small Gulf Arab state.
The state television said the two men were arrested on September 25 while trying to sneak into the country from former occupier Iraq.
In June, a Kuwaiti court sentenced two Iraqi intelligence agents and three Arab residents to 10 years in prison each for spying for Iraq.
The United States has maintained a military presence in Kuwait since it led the 1991 Gulf War to end a seven-month Iraqi occupation. It has ground troops in addition to warplanes and heavy military hardware deployed there.
U.S. troops and facilities in Kuwait have been on high alert since the September 11 suicide attacks in New York and Washington, while Kuwait has intensified military and police patrols and placed a large number of forces on alert.
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