Eyewitness: Missile targets Kuwait

Eyewitness: Missile targets Kuwait

By Ryan Dilley BBC News Online, Kuwait City

A missile has exploded near a seafront shopping centre in the heart of Kuwait City without warning, peppering the area with shrapnel and shattering windows but causing no serious injuries.

Some shoppers collected missile fragments as souvenirs

Just before 0200 local time (2300 GMT Friday), a large explosion rocked the Souk Sharq shopping mall, which lies directly on the Gulf shore and close to the foreign ministry and the palace of Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait.

"I heard a big sound, an explosion. There was a big shaking," says Jassim Sadeq, who was inside the building.

The centre - one of Kuwait's most popular malls - is open 24 hours a day and contained weekend shoppers, despite the late hour.

"We were told to stay inside in case of danger," says Mr Sadeq. "When we came out there were many police and thick smoke was hanging in the air."

Pier struck

Captain Yousef Ghadanfari, of the Kuwaiti fire service, told BBC News Online that judging from the impact crater in the ground beside the complex, the missile was "small and had travelled low across the sea from the north".

"It struck the pier beside the souk and debris was thrown onto the land and against the cinema. There was a small fire at the site of the impact of the largest piece of debris, but a ruptured water pipe extinguished that quickly."

There appears to be only superficial damage to the front of the souk's cinema, while some distance away windows have been shattered and ceiling plaster brought down.

Kuwait City has endured almost 20 air raid alerts since US-led forces launched an invasion of neighbouring Iraq from bases in the emirate.

No sirens preceded the impact at the shopping centre, prompting civil defence workers on the scene to suggest the missile may have been flying too low to be picked up by radar stations on the lookout for incoming projectiles.

At least one Iraqi missile has evaded radar detection since the war began, but this is the first time a projectile has fallen in a built-up area.

Chemical tests

Czech soldiers, despatched to the scene to test for signs of chemical or biological weapons, arrived 45 minutes after the explosion.

A Czech team tested for chemical weapons

Wearing gas masks, the team had to battle through a crowd of hundreds of male bystanders. Many of those gathered were collecting the twisted shards of metal debris which littered the car park.

While police and civil defence workers struggled to seal off the area, at least one souvenir-hunter claimed to have found scraps of the missile which carried English writing.

This led some bystanders to suggest the missile may have been accidentally fired by US-led forces, rather than by the Iraqis.

Other witnesses said the fragments bore Chinese characters.

Official reports suggest the missile came from the al-Faw peninsula, an area of Iraq supposedly secured by invading US-led forces.

The missile strike came just hours after the UK's Major General Albert Whitely reassured Kuwaitis that Saddam Hussein's ability to launch weapons of mass destruction at the emirate had been made "difficult" by the advance US-led forces into Iraq.

After weeks of worry about a possible missile attack, during which many Kuwaitis purchased gas masks and created sealed bunkers in their homes, the first missile impact on the city seems a source of curiosity rather than fear to the population.

"I am not scared," says eyewitness Mohammed al-Musfar, as he gathered matchbox-sized chunks of the projectile some 50 metres away from the main crater.