Truck Rams Into U.S. Soldiers in Kuwait 
March 30, 2003 11:32 AM EST           .................................................................

Elements of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit , 
come ashore at Camp Patriot, Kuwait, on Saturday,
March 29, 2003, in support of Operation Iraqi 
Freedom. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, Journalist 1st Class
Joseph Krypel)		 KUWAIT CITY - A man in civilian clothes drove a pickup truck into a group of U.S. soldiers standing outside a store at the Kuwaiti desert base of Camp Udairi on Sunday. 

About six people were injured, said Lt. Col. Larry Cox, public affairs officer at the Coalition press office in Kuwait City, contrary to an earlier report that 10 to 15 were hurt. There were no details about the injured or where they were being treated. 

No explosives were found in the truck, a Pentagon official said. 

The driver of the truck was a "third-country national" who was being detained by U.S. military forces, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official did not know which country the driver was from. 
Another military official said the driver definitely was not American and did not appear to be Kuwaiti. 

It would not be uncommon for third-country nationals to be working at U.S. military installations in Kuwait. More than half of the people in Kuwait are foreign workers, many from the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and other Middle Eastern countries. 

Camp Udairi is primarily a V Corps aviation base that is also used for maintenance and supply. 

Kuwait, an oil-rich desert state slightly smaller than New Jersey, has hosted a virtually permanent U.S. Army presence since the Gulf War ended in 1991. Now it is the key launching pad for U.S. ground forces invading Iraq. 

American troops and civilians have been killed or wounded in Kuwait in separate incidents since October. 

Islamic extremists were blamed for the Jan. 21 shooting that killed a San Diego computer contractor and injured another American close to Camp Doha, where U.S. forces are based. 

A Kuwaiti policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding two U.S. soldiers Nov. 21. 

In October, Muslim fundamentalists killed one U.S. Marine and injured another on a Kuwaiti island. Other Marines killed the gunmen. 

On March 23, a grenade attack killed two U.S. officers and wounded 14 soldiers at a 101st Airborne Division camp in Kuwait. U.S. soldier Hasan Akbar, 32, is being held in the case.