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| Iraq |
| Possible Silkworm Missile Explodes Near Kuwait City Shopping Mall |
| 2003-03-28 |
| A missile fell into the sea and exploded near a major shopping mall in Kuwait City early Saturday, but officials said it caused no injuries and little damage. It was the closest that a missile has come to Kuwait City since the war began in neighboring Iraq on March 20. Appearing on national television, police Brig. Ahmed al-Rujaid said the missile landed at about 1:45 a.m. close to the Souq Sharq mall, a multilevel shopping center that's one of Kuwait's largest. No air raid siren sounded before the explosion, which shattered windows, blasted the glass door at the front of the mall and blew out huge chunks of plater from the adjacent parking structure. "There were no injuries and material damage is very small," al-Rujaid said. Parts of the ceiling and walls littered the ground in a covered plaza in front of the mall after the explosion. Television images also showed smoke rising over the Kuwaiti skyline. Souq Sharq is on the Kuwaiti seafront and includes a marina, shops and restaurants. The mall is about half a mile from Sief Palace, the official seat of the emir of Kuwait. The emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, lives in Dasman palace, about two miles further away. U.S. Patriot missile batteries guard Kuwait against missile attacks by neighboring Iraq. In Doha, Qatar, the U.S. Central Command said it was investigating the explosion but had no further information and could not confirm a missile attack. Ziad, in Kuwait, will probably have some comments on this in a few hours, when he gets up. FOLLOWUP: Here's more, courtesy of Frank Martin and MSNBC... A missile landed near the waterfront in central Kuwait City after midnight Saturday, causing a huge explosion and unleashing a large plume of smoke but causing little damage and no injuries, Kuwaiti officials said. THE MISSILE fell into the sea about 1:45 a.m. close to the Souq Sharq shopping mall in the city center, a little more than a mile from the emirâs palace, police Brig. Ahmed al-Rujaid said. âThere were no injuries, and material damage is very small,â al-Rujaid said. The mall had been closed for hours in observance of the Muslim holy day. A team of Czech military chemicals weapons experts wearing full protective suits and gas masks was at the scene, along with a large crowd of onlookers. Naval patrol boats chugged slowly up and down the sea, apparently looking for fragments. Reuters correspondents said they saw what looked like the tailfin of a missile in the debris. Witnesses, meanwhile, told The New York Times that they saw a twisted piece of metal near the shoreline bearing the number â5420â in red. Local television coverage showed pieces of ceiling and walls scattered over the ground in a covered entryway to the multi-level Souq Sharq, which is on the Kuwaiti seafront and includes a marina, shops and restaurants. Glass doors and windows were shattered and some doors were knocked off their hinges. A Reuters reporter at the scene said a cinema facing the sea suffered damage to its roof and facing. "We were very lucky,â said Mohammed al-Misfir, a Kuwaiti who said he was in the area at the time of the blast. âNormally at this time, the cinema is open, but because of the war it has been closed, so no one was hurt.â State television blamed Iraq for the explosion, which the Kuwait News Agency said followed three hoax bomb calls to downtown hotels late Friday night. "We hope that everyone takes precautions and pays attention to the fact that this [Iraqi] regime is treacherous and will not desist from harming Kuwait,â Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Rageeb said. However, U.S. Central Command in nearby Qatar, said it had no confirmation that a missile fired from Iraq had landed near the city, which is ringed by U.S. Patriot missile batteries to guard against such attacks. NBC News correspondent Don Teague, who heard the blast from a hotel several miles away, said no air raid sirens preceded the explosion. MSNBC Reporters on the scene have reported hearing the local police say "SILKWORM", also the writing on the side of the missle says SILKWORM in Arabic. This could be big. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #5 Agreed. Apparently the harbor in Kuwait City would allow for an approach from the north, rather than from the east. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that it came in from the sea. |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-03-28 23:07:56 |
| #4 The Saddamites hid Scuds on school buses during Gulf War1. Whatever type of missile, it could have been set up beside some barn near the Iraq-Kuwait border. Better to wait for tracking intelligence. |
| Posted by: Anonon 2003-03-28 22:49:58 |
| #3 Make no mistake, there is big impact here. If this was launched from Iran, it will be a huge deal. If instead of hitting the seawall and bouncing into the "mall", it had hit a US ship, imagine what Ari would have to hear from Helen Thomas on Monday morning. Expect more of the same in the near future. |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2003-03-28 22:11:39 |
| #2 The media is reacting like they dropped a nuke on the place. Be interesting to see where they launched it from if it was a Silkworm. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-03-28 20:53:53 |
| #1 CNN reporter on the scene just gave new details: Its being identified as a "Seersucker" Also of note, the Czech NBC ( Nuclear Biological and Chemical) Team checked out the scene at the time of the crash. More "unilateral" european action I suppose. Seersucker link: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/c-201.htm |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 3/28/2003 10:07:47 PM |