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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: Sirens wailed across the country on Sunday and schools held evacuation drills as part of preparations for any Iraqi retaliation should Washington launch a military campaign against Baghdad.
As the first siren sounded, students in 751 schools were evacuated, guided by teachers and other staff to so-called “safe-havens” in the school.
In one government school outside Kuwait City, hundreds of students filed out of their classrooms through the building and on to the football pitch in less than two minutes, school officials said.
They returned to their classrooms once the sirens alerted them to the end of any danger.
The drill was also useful practice in the event of a fire, flooding or a bomb scare, officials said. The nationwide exercise was organised by the civil defence, primarily for government schools, but private schools also opted to take part.
CORDON CREATED: Kuwait will create an exclusive military zone in a major chunk of its territory bordering Iraq from November 2, the ministry of defence said on Sunday.
An area in the northwest, covering about one-quarter of the emirate, “will be sealed with the start of the Kuwaiti army’s training season and exercises to be held with friendly troops,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The decision comes in accordance with security measures under the prevailing circumstances aimed at protecting the safety of visitors to such areas,” said the statement, which appeared in quarter-page advertisements in local newspapers.
The military zone, which will be off-limits to civilians, “is not related to any possible military plans the US might have in store for the Iraqi regime,” Kuwaiti armed forces spokesman Brigadier Ahmed al-Rahmani told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.
“The aim is for the safety of the civilians who normally like to camp and hunt in that area in the winter. It’s also to ensure that the planned military exercises with the Americans can be conducted without accidental interference by civilians,” he added.
The published notice indicated that the military zone will extend from Kuwait’s northern border post of Abdali to al-Mutla ridge in the south. It will also extend to Ali al-Salem Air base in the south, as well as westward to the Ta’won Police Station near that border.—AFP/DPA
