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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Saudi border guards arrested a Kuwaiti suspected of killing one American and critically wounding another in an ambush in Kuwait, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday.
The agency quoted an Interior Ministry official as saying the Kuwaiti was arrested Wednesday "sneaking into Saudi Arabia from Kuwait."
"The initial investigation revealed that he was the assailant who fired on the American citizens on Tuesday," the report said.
A Kuwaiti government spokesman said he would not comment on the report until Thursday.
The two civilian contractors working for the U.S. military were ambushed Tuesday near at Camp Doha, about 10 miles west of Kuwait City. Police said a gunman hiding behind a hedge about 3 miles from the base opened fire with a Kalashnikov on the Americans' sports utility vehicle while it was at a stoplight.
One of them David Caraway, was in stable condition Wednesday at al-Razi hospital in Kuwait City. His co-worker Michael Rene Pouliot, 46, was killed in the attack.
The shooting was the first assault on U.S. civilians in Kuwait and the third on Americans since October in the oil-rich emirate, where pro-American sentiment is usually strong and where thousands of U.S. troops are assembling for a possible war on Iraq.
On Oct. 8, two Kuwaiti Muslims opened fire on Marines taking a break from training, killing one and injuring another. Other Marines shot and killed the assailants. A policeman also shot at two U.S. soldiers in their civilian car on a highway on Nov. 21.
Kuwaiti officials have described the attacks as isolated incidents, distancing themselves from any terrorist connections. Most of Kuwait's 2.2 million population welcomes Americans, a lingering sentiment from the U.S.-led coalition that drove out Iraqi invaders during the 1991 Gulf War.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
