Six mortar shells hit eastern border of Saudi Arabia

Source : http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-11/22/c_125743058.htm

Six mortar shells of unknown source hit an area on Saudi Arabia's eastern border with Iraq and Kuwait, causing no damage, Saudi Press Agency reported Thursday, quoting a military spokesman.Saudi authorities are contacting their two neighbors to inquire the source of the shells to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future, General Mohammed al-Ghamdi, the spokesman, said.Local residents were quoted by Al Arabia TV as saying some Saudi warplanes were seen flying over the area early on Thursday.Hafr al-Batin, a desert region near Iraq and Kuwait, hosted a U. S. army headquarters during Operation Desert Storm that prompted the pullout of Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991, the TV noted.Tension between Saudi Arabia and Iraq goes back to the first Gulf war in the early 1990s. There has been no Saudi ambassador sent to Iraq for years.

Shots fired during Iraq-Kuwait border protest

Source : Turkish weekly

UBAI — Kuwait has expressed dismay to the United Nations over a protest by stone-throwing Iraqis against the demarcation of the border, state media reported, underlining lingering tensions between the Arab neighbors a decade after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

Iraq formally accepted a U.N.-demarcated border line in 1994 after the first Gulf War - when Iraqi strongman Saddam sent his troops into Kuwait in 1990 and was forced out by a U.S.-led coalition.

But many Iraqis in the area remain opposed to it, saying the line robbed them of property and territory.

Iraqi police sources said the protesting crowd hurled stones at Iraqi security forces in the border town of Um Qasr on Monday, prompting the security forces to fire in the air to disperse them. The unrest was triggered by border signs maintenance work nearby, they said.

Kuwaiti border guards, hearing the gunshots and believing they were being targeted, opened fire at Iraqi security forces in response, Kuwaiti media reported. There were no reports of casualties on either side.

Kuwait's Foreign Ministry undersecretary, Khalid al-Jarallah, said his country has submitted a memorandum to the United Nations and to Iraq over the incident, according to Kuwait's state news agency KUNA.

"We have issued a statement expressing our dismay over the irresponsible act,'' he said. "It is an act that runs counter to the nature of brotherly relations between Kuwait and Iraq.''

Kuwait pulled its border guards out of the area after the incident "to calm the situation'', Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai reported on its website.

KUNA said some of the protesting Iraqis had obstructed U.N.- supervised border signs maintenance and removed the border fence between two signs.

An Iraqi police source told Reuters that one activist was injured in the border unrest.

Leaders of both oil-producing countries have been working to improve ties in the past year, despite public wariness. The nations came to an agreement over Gulf War-era debts last year.

Iraq's foreign and transport ministers travelled on the first flight of state-run Iraqi Airways to Kuwait since 1990 last month, in a symbolic gesture hailed by officials as a sign of improving relations.

Kuwait's ruler and Iraq's prime minister have also visited each other's countries and officials have vowed to work together to maintain border markings.

13 March 2013

Kuwait police fire tear gas on defiant protesters

Source : Fox News

Riot police in Kuwait have fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse more than 1,000 anti-government protesters, defying strict rules limiting political demonstrations in the Gulf nation.

Kuwaiti authorities have said rallies must receive written permission as part of efforts to quell growing unrest over last month's parliamentary elections.

But organizers of Sunday's protest used social media to mobilize crowds.

Opposition groups have accused Kuwait's ruler of overstepping his powers by changing voting rules that appeared to favor government critics, which span from Islamist factions and pro-reform liberals. They now seek to bring down the new parliament dominated by pro- government lawmakers.

Kuwaiti rights activist Mohammed Al-Humaidi says several protesters were arrested. There were no immediate reports of injuries.