16 January 2005	Sunday	05 Zilhaj 1425

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 15: A suspected Saudi militant was killed on Saturday in a clash with Kuwaiti security forces near A US military base during a hunt for wanted extremists only days after a gunfight left two security officers dead.

"A wanted man was killed. He was a Saudi," Kuwaiti Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf al Ahmad al Sabah told reporters outside a house stormed by security forces in Umm al Haiman, south of Kuwait City.

It was the first time a Saudi was identified as having been involved in such an incident in Kuwait. "We arrested another (wanted militant)... and the rest fled," the minister said after the clashes, which erupted when security forces launched a hunt for suspected extremists in a key oil producing region. Two security officers were also wounded.

"The man killed carried a Saudi passport, while the one arrested is a Kuwaiti citizen," Sheikh Nawaf said. "Those who fled do not number more than six," he said.

The militants sped away in two cars and security forces were out hunting for them, witnesses said. Of the two security men slightly injured, one was an officer hit in the chest, said Sheikh Nawaf, adding that both were in stable condition.

The shootout dragged on intermittently for about three hours as militants moved from house to house and a hefty arms cache was confiscated. The US embassy warned its citizens on Monday that assailants in a black car driving around Kuwait planned to "randomly attack Westerners", in a message posted on the embassy website.

It called on "all US citizens to exercise caution, maintain a low profile, and avoid areas where Westerners are known to congregate". -AFP