Kuwait to Train Volunteers for Civil Defense, Official Says

This Persian Gulf sheikdom plans to train civilian volunteers to help defend the nation, which has put its reflagged tankers under U.S. Navy protection in the gulf, an official was quoted as saying Tuesday.

Preventing attacks by Iranian-trained saboteurs appears to be the plan’s main objective. Iran, which has been at war with Iraq since September, 1980, accuses Kuwait of supporting its adversary.

Col. Khalid Quoud, Kuwait’s civil defense director, was quoted in the English-language Kuwait Times as saying that military training of volunteers will begin next week.

He did not say how many volunteers will be involved. Kuwait has a defense force of only about 12,000 plus a small national guard.

Quoud said a “food security plan” has been devised along with a program to cope with power blackouts.

The training plan accompanies other defense measures and was not prompted by recent Iranian attacks, he said, but added: “If the program coincides with the recent escalation” of tension in the gulf, “then it calls for enthusiasm in its implementation from both the leadership and the citizens.”

An Iranian Silkworm missile hit one of Kuwait’s reflagged tankers Oct. 16. Last Thursday, Iran fired another Chinese-made missile at Kuwait’s supertanker loading terminal, setting it ablaze. On Saturday, a bomb wrecked a Pan American World Airways ticket office in Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the 13th convoy of Navy ships and U.S.-registered Kuwaiti tankers was moving up the Persian Gulf on Tuesday to the Kuwaiti anchorage.