Blaze at Kuwaiti Oil Export Terminal Prompts Emergency Cabinet Meeting

A fire broke out at Kuwait’s main oil export terminal, and the government held an emergency session Saturday to discuss the situation.

Kuwait’s KUNA news agency said the fire broke out Friday night at Ahmadi, 32 miles south of the capital. It quoted an Information Ministry source as saying the blaze had been “brought under total control” and there were no casualties, but other sources said the fire was still raging Saturday night. The report did not mention the extent of damage at the facility.

Officials would not speculate on what started the fire--the latest in a series of explosions and fires at oil installations in Ahmadi and other targets in Kuwait in the past year.

Iran accuses Kuwait of supporting Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, and Kuwaiti oil tankers and freighters have been frequent targets of Iranian attacks.

The minister of state for Cabinet affairs, Rashid Abdulaziz Rashid, said the Cabinet reviewed the “measures taken to bring the blaze under control and prevent it from spreading.”

Rashid was quoted by KUNA as saying Prime Minister Saad Abdullah Sabah presided over the emergency session and heard reports from Oil Minister Khalifa Sabah and other concerned ministers about details of the fire and precautions taken to deal with it and avoid further such incidents.

The report did not mention the extent of damage at the facility.