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★阿修羅♪
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爆弾テロ説を通り越して、一気に米側の誤爆の可能性が出てきました。
CBS news
http://www.cbsnews.com/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/28/iraq/main546631.shtml
Did Errant U.S. Missile Hit Kuwait City?
KUWAIT CITY, March 28, 2003
(CBS) Nerves were shattered early Saturday in Kuwait City by a missile that exploded near a popular shopping mall, shattering windows and causing other property damage before falling into the sea without killing or injuring anyone.
It was at first thought that the missile had apparently come from Iraq, but a published report now says officials are also looking into the possibility that it could have been a U.S. missile gone astray.
The New York Times quotes unidentified Kuwaiti officials as saying that both the behavior of the missile and its markings lead them to believe it was an American missile that somehow went off course.
"It was an American cruise missile, we know from the markings and writing on it," an unidentified Kuwaiti police colonel told the Times. "It doesn't go up, it comes in low from the sea, and that's why there was no alert."
Asked about reports that it may have been a U.S. missile gone wrong, Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told the Times that it is too early to tell what happened or whose missile it was.
Shortly after the missile first hit, U.S. officials in Washington speaking on the condition of anonymity had at first theorized that the missile appeared to have been a Silkworm launched from southern Iraq. The "Silkworm" is a Chinese-made version of the Soviet Styx, a crude but sometimes effective anti-ship missile.
The Patriot missile systems stationed in Kuwait to protect against incoming missiles are geared to focus mainly on aircraft and high-altitude missiles, and might not be able to detect a Silkworm.
There was no advance warning, and no air raid siren, as the missile made its way into Kuwait City, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips.
The place where the missile landed is the furthest point that a missile has come inside Kuwait since U.S. troops based in the Persian Gulf emirate invaded neighboring Iraq on March 20.
A number of other missiles, fired by Iraq, have been fired at Kuwait since the war began but none came in as close as this one. Several were intercepted and shot down by Patriot missiles. In all cases, there were no injuries.
Commenting on Saturday's missile, shortly after the explosion, Kuwait City Police Brig. Ahmed al-Rujaid said the missile landed at about 1:45 a.m. local time close to the Souq Sharq mall, a multilevel shopping center that's one of Kuwait's largest.
"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. Glass doors and windows were shattered and some doors were knocked off their hinges. Television images also showed smoke rising over the Kuwaiti skyline.
"My heart is still pounding," said Batoul Tabtabai, a 40-year-old housewife who had been shopping at a 24-hour supermarket about 200 yards from the blast. "May God take revenge on Saddam. There will be no security as long as he is alive."
Some onlookers celebrated the lack of major damage by gathering and singing around Ali Al-Sebai, an Egyptian-American musician who was visiting Kuwait, whose emir is Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
"We have Sheik Jaber and we fear no one," they sang. "Let Saddam go to hell."
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.
This is the 13th missile that has either been fired at, or landed in, Kuwait since the U.S.-led military campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein began on March 20. None are believed to have carried chemical or biological warheads.
On Thursday, civilian defense officials in Kuwait said a U.S. Patriot missile knocked down an Iraqi missile fired from southern Iraq. No debris was reported to have fallen on populated areas.
Air raid sirens have sounded repeatedly since the war began last week, cautioning the 2.3 million residents of this small, oil-rich state to take cover.
Kuwait, a tiny oil-rich emirate just south of Iraq where U.S. and British forces have been massing for months, has from the beginning considered likely to be an Iraqi target.
Within hours of the first U.S. strike on Baghdad on Thursday, sirens blared throughout Kuwait City, sending jittery residents scrambling for bomb shelters, some carrying gas masks and chemical suits.
© MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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