November 19, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 13, 1423

KUWAIT, Nov 18: An unidentified man in a civilian car broke through Kuwaiti and United Nations checkpoints on Monday and crossed the border into Iraq, Western defence sources said.

The man drove through two Kuwaiti checkpoints, one UN checkpoint and an Iraqi checkpoint on the road between Abdali, in Kuwait, and Safwan, in Iraq, the sources said. He was believed to have been stopped inside Iraq.

The United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission has asked Iraq for an official report identifying the man and providing information on whether he had been detained, the sources said.

It was not clear whether the man had been trying to escape Kuwait. Other sources said it was possible he was an Al Qaeda operative or an Iraqi agent fleeing capture.

Kuwaiti sources say a number of suspected Al Qaeda members have been arrested in Kuwait following the capture two weeks ago of a 21-year-old man identified until now as Mohsen F, a Kuwaiti citizen alleged to be a senior Al Qaeda operative.—Reuters