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Canadian shot dead in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - A Canadian man was shot dead and his wife seriously injured in a drive-by shooting Wednesday night as they strolled along a beach south of Kuwait City, security sources said.

The man, identified only as Luke, worked as an aircraft technician at the emirate's Ahmd al-Jabr airbase, the sources said.

His wife was hit by at least three bullets and was intensive care in the nearby Al-Adan Adan hospital.

She told police that a car had stopped near where the couple were walking just before midnight and opened fire showering the couple with bullets.

Her husband died on the spot.

The sources did not rule out the possiblity that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

It would be the first murder of a westerner in the Gulf Arab states since the launch of US-led air strikes on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan on Sunday.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001

Answers

Alarm Grips Western Expats in Gulf After Killing

Updated: Thu, Oct 11 11:23 AM EDT

By Ashraf Fouad and Mariam Isa

KUWAIT/RIYADH (Reuters) - Alarm rippled among Western expatriates in the Gulf on Thursday after a Canadian was shot dead in Kuwait in what appeared to be a response to U.S. air raids on Muslim Afghanistan.

"People who live in compounds are scared to death -- it's like being a red-striped zebra in a regular zebra herd," said Saudi-based U.S. executive David Castillo, 57, referring to the enclosed residential suburbs where Westerners live in Riyadh.

"A lot of people are stocking up on food and supplies so that if something does happen they can they can be more secure -- I see water being stockpiled and canned goods." Anxiety among western ex-patriates and, to an extent, members of the larger Asian ex-patriate community, rose in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but intensified after U.S.-led bombing raids started on Sunday.

Many Muslims have been angered by the bombing of Afghanistan, which authorities there say has caused numerous civilian casualties.

"The possibility of having to leave is in everyone's minds," said Catherine, 35, an Australian teacher in Saudi Arabia.

A Western security expert in a Gulf state said he would start wearing a handgun that he normally keeps at a secure site.

CANADIAN SHOT DEAD

A Canadian aircraft technician was shot dead in Kuwait and his Filipina companion was wounded on Wednesday in what appeared to be a premeditated attack related to the strikes.

The murdered Canadian was identified in Arabic as Luke Adrey, in his mid-30s. He was employed by Kuwait's Ahmad al-Jaber airbase, where the United States has kept aircraft since the 1991 Gulf War.

Kuwait has not officially linked the attack to the raids on Afghanistan but official sources said it was among the main possible motives being investigated.

A day earlier a man threw a fire bomb at a German couple in Saudi Arabia in an incident also believed related to the international situation, diplomats said.

The man and woman escaped unhurt, the diplomats said, but the episode in Riyadh had prompted the German embassy to advise Germans in the kingdom to tighten their personal security.

An American was one of two people killed on Saturday in a bomb blast in the city of Khobar in Saudi Arabia, even before the raids on Afghanistan started.

"We feel like we're walking on thin ice," a British defense executive in Oman said. "We're just maintaining a low profile."

"I think people are starting to panic now," said an expatriate woman after meeting on Thursday in Kuwait with several fellow Westerners at a school sports event.

"The mothers are asking if they should leave with the kids."

A diplomat in Yemen said several embassies in Sanaa had received bomb threats and were being vigilant about security.

There are more than 100,000 Americans and Europeans and several million Asians living and working in the Gulf, which sits on two-thirds of the world's oil reserves.

REVIEW OF SECURITY

The United States responded to the Kuwait killing by telling its 8,000 citizens in the country to keep a low profile. "We urge American citizens to limit their movements, maintain a low profile and remain alert to their surroundings," it said.

Some Westerners said the attack looked like an isolated incident and they were still confident of their safety.

"We are not taking any special precautions," said Gorge Stobel, a German living in the United Arab Emirates. "Look at Pakistan and India, they are killing each other on the border and here those nationalities live together."

But a British man working in the UAE said: "I'm going to avoid areas conspicuous for Pakistanis and Afghans. To be honest, I'm going to avoid anyone poor and Muslim."

In Dubai, the UAE's commercial and tourist hub, organizers said former U.S. President Bill Clinton had canceled a visit to a Dubai technology event due to the international situation.

In Oman, a British lecturer at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat said he felt he had become a potential target.

"My sympathy is with the Palestinian people, but I may be seen (locally) as a representative of my country."

A British woman in Oman predicted trouble if air strikes spread to countries in the region like Iraq, adding: "At the back of your mind you're not 100 percent sure of your security."

Castillo said Westerners who had lived in Saudi Arabia for a long time were taking things fairly calmly, recent arrivals were more jittery. "People are changing their habits a lot -- instead of going to restaurants they entertain at home."

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001