-Caveat Lector- http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/29/international/worldspecial/29KUWA.h tml?ex=1049518800&en=fabf7ac235fb74f3&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE March 29, 2003
Explosion, Said to Be From Missile, Rocks Empty Mall in Kuwait By CRAIG S. SMITH KUWAIT, Saturday, March 29 — An explosion rocked an empty shopping mall on the waterfront early today in Kuwait City, the capital, sending a huge plume of white smoke towering into the sky. Kuwaiti officials said a missile that had landed in the water nearby was responsible. Witnesses who gathered shortly after the explosion at 1:45 a.m. local time could see a twisted piece of metal on the esplanade near the shoreline about the size of a wastebasket and bearing the number "5420" in red. The words "place" and "protractor" could also be made out on a shard. Emergency workers put fragments into bags that they took away for analysis. Despite indications that a missile had struck near the rear entrance to the Sharq mall, by the Sharqiah cinema, witnesses said they did not hear air- raid sirens that would indicate an incoming missile. Some Kuwaiti officials who examined the fragments said they believed an errant American cruise missile had been fired from the Persian Gulf toward Iraq. "It was an American cruise missile, we know from the markings and writing on it," said a Kuwaiti police colonel who did not give his name. "It doesn't go up, it comes in low from the sea, and that's why there was no alert." Another uniformed Kuwaiti official said that he, too, believed the missile to have been American and said that it "came from the sea." He then added that "it was a mistake" that it had struck Kuwait. In Washington, the chief Pentagon spokeswoman, Victoria Clarke, asked about reports that Kuwaiti officials were blaming an American missile for the damage, said it was too early to tell what had happened or whose missile it was. The Associated Press reported that unidentified American officials in Washington said the missile appeared to have been a Chinese-built Silkworm launched from southern Iraq. The mall, about a mile and quarter from Al Saif, the palace of Kuwait's governing emir, had been closed for the Muslim holy day. The official Kuwaiti news service reported two people wounded. The blast shattered windows, scattered ceiling tiles and ruptured water pipes in the mall, in the Souq Sharq district. Talal al-Zamanan, who was sitting in a cafe on the opposite side of the mall when the explosion occurred, said that if the missile had struck on a Wednesday night, before the Islamic weekend, the area would have been crowded with people. A few of the emergency workers who rushed to the scene wore gas masks, which they kept on for a short time, and members of the Czech Republic's Chemical Protection Battalion took away chemical samples, saying their analysis would probably be able to determine the missile's origin. A faint chemical scent of what some people described as rocket propellant hung in the night air. Rather than sending people scrambling for shelter, the explosion drew a crowd of onlookers. Officials say more than 10 missiles have come into Kuwait airspace since the beginning of the war in Iraq, with most having been shot down by Patriot missiles. None of the Iraqi missiles have caused significant damage or injuries. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article have to stand on their own merits. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many genera- tions. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. 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