Republished October 09, 2016 - 7:52 AM
Original Publication Date October 09, 2016 - 6:45 AM
KUWAIT CITY - American troops deployed in Kuwait who were intentionally rammed by an Egyptian man over the weekend pulled their attacker from his burning vehicle after it caught fire, the U.S. Embassy said Sunday.
The embassy described the incident on a Kuwaiti highway Saturday that was initially thought to be a traffic accident as "an attempted terrorist attack." All three uniformed U.S. military personnel in the truck that was struck escaped unharmed, the embassy said.
The incapacitated attacker, identified by Kuwaiti authorities as Ibrahim Sulaiman, born in 1988, was hospitalized and in police custody.
Kuwaiti authorities had earlier said five American soldiers were involved. The Interior Ministry published pictures of the aftermath of the crash showing a wrecked garbage truck along with items it described as a suicide belt loaded with shrapnel. The white pickup truck apparently carrying the soldiers had the left side of its bed smashed in.
The embassy did not say where the troops were stationed, but American forces are deployed to Kuwait's Camp Arifjan.
Terrorist attacks are rare in Kuwait, a U.S. ally that was liberated during the 1991 American-led Gulf War following an invasion by neighbouring Iraq.
The embassy said it is not aware of any "specific, credible threats" against American civilians in Kuwait, but it reminded those in the country to remain vigilant.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016