Anniversary Frays Kuwaiti Nerves

A jittery Kuwait marked the second anniversary of Iraq’s invasion by hinting of an emergency plan to deal with any new aggression, while U.S. troops prepared for monthlong war games.

Sheik Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, Kuwait’s crown prince, said the government has an emergency plan “to confront all possibilities and circumstances,” but he gave no details.

Diplomats said they expect that the arrival of U.S. Army, Navy and Marine units will soothe Kuwaiti nerves, fraught by a stream of bellicose rhetoric from Baghdad in recent days.

Iraq repeated its claims to Kuwait on Sunday and warned of a second takeover.

“It will happen again, God willing,” said a headline on the front page of the Babil daily below a photograph of President Saddam Hussein praying in October, 1990, on the Kuwait city seafront.

“It goes without saying Kuwait is part of Iraq,” said the official Al Jumhouriyah newspaper. “In the end Kuwait will return to its rightful owners. How and when? History will answer.”