Pentagon man killed in gun ambush near US military base in Kuwait

An American civilian working for the Pentagon was killed and another critically wounded yesterday when a gunman hiding in shrubbery fired on their vehicle at a traffic light near the main US base in Kuwait.

The United States embassy in Kuwait named the dead man as Michael Rene Pouliot, of San Diego, California, who worked for a software development company contracted to the US military. The other man, whose identity was withheld until next of kin are informed, was wounded in the chest, arm and thigh. He was said to be stable after surgery.

The attack is the third on Americans in Kuwait since the build-up to possible war on Iraq began. The victims' Toyota FWD was attacked three miles from Camp Doha, with 17,000 American troops, close to the Iraqi border. A British advance party, including Royal Engineers arrived here last week to prepare for the deployment of 26,000 British troops which has just been announced.

In October, a US Marine was killed and a second wounded when two Kuwaiti Muslim extremists opened fire on Marines taking a break from training. The attackers, one of whom had pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, died in by return fire. In November, a Kuwaiti policeman shot and seriously wounded two US soldiers after stopping their car on a highway.

The same month, an audiotape with a voice believed to be bin Laden's praised the attack as the work of "zealous sons of Islam in defence of their religion". Unlike much of the Muslim world where anti-American sentiment and opposition to war in Iraq is running high, Kuwaitis often express gratitude toward the US for leading the force which drove out Iraqi troops in 1991.

Kuwait's parliamentary Speaker, Jassem al-Kharafi, said yesterday's shooting was "an act of an individual that doesn't represent the opinion of the Kuwaiti people". But Dr Abdallah Bishara, a senior diplomat in the Kuwaiti foreign office, said officials should stop dismissing the attacks on American troops as isolated incidents. "These are acts of terrorism," he said. "There are sleeper cells in Kuwait."

Sixty per cent of the 2.2 million people are under 18, and young Kuwaitis are thought more sympathetic to claims by Iraq and Arab media that Washington is targeting Saddam Hussein to gain Iraqi oilfields and strengthen Israel.

Last week a sergeant in Kuwait's National Guard was charged with spying for Iraq, plotting explosions, attempting to poison US Marines, and trying to kill Kuwaiti politicians.