Kuwait City. 5 Dec. (AKI) - US troops have arrested 22 Kuwaitis in Iraq who say they were on a game-hunting trip. They were caught as they tried to leave Iraq and enter Jordan via the Trebil border crossing and have been detained in Abu Ghraib prison on terrorism charges. The Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper reported that the men had tried to cross the border during a night-time curfew, but when they refused to bribe the Iraqi border guards, the guards reported them to the US military. The 22 Kuwaitis are reported to have had an official hunting licence, issued by the Sulaimaniya governorate of Iraq. Kuwaiti tribal leaders and one MP have urged Iraqi vice-president Ghazi Yawar and interior minister Bayan Jabor Solagh to release them, but without success.
Since Saddam Hussein's regime was brought down in 2003, several Kuwaitis have been arrested in Iraq or while trying to enter Iraq from Syria, and have admitted to being members of groups involved in the resistance against US troops in Iraq. Last month eight armed Kuwaitis and two Saudis, who also claimed to be on a game-hunting trip, were caught trying to cross the border from Jordan into Iraq.