A Kuwaiti man who was arrested yesterday as he tried to enter a hotel housing the main US and British military press centre with a mortar in his car has been released, a security official has said.
The man was detained for questioning after police found what a security official described as a mortar in his car at a checkpoint outside the Hilton Hotel, the main contact point between US and British military officials and the media.
"He was released because it was discovered that the mortar was rusty and empty and he had no intention to do any harm," the security official told journalists on Sunday.
"It was a mortar left over from the Iraqis in the occupation in 1990. Some Kuwaitis put mortars and other weapons in their cars as memorabilia," he added.
The incident underscored war jitters in tiny Kuwait, which fears both retaliation if US troops it is hosting strike Iraq and further attacks on American soldiers by suspected Muslim militants.
Kuwaiti officials have blamed alleged sympathisers with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for a series of fatal shooting attacks on Americans in Kuwait.
The oil-rich country has tightened security ahead of a possible war on Iraq, positioning heavily armed troops at major intersections and installing metal detectors at hotels.