An unidentified man in a civilian car broke through Kuwaiti and United Nations (UN) checkpoints on Monday and crossed the border into Iraq, according to Western defense sources.
The United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), which monitors the border area, has asked Baghdad for an official report identifying the man and providing data on whether he had been arrested, the sources said. It was not clear whether the man had been trying to escape the emirate of Kuwait, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, other sources said it was possible he was an Al Qaeda operative or an Iraqi agent escaping capture.
The man, driving a grey sedan and wearing traditional Kuwaiti robes and headdress, sped by a Kuwaiti checkpoint, then a United Nations post and finally the Iraqi border crossing, a UN official said.
"We don't know who the man is or what he was doing," said Daljeet Bagga, a spokesman for the UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission, according to AFP.
"The car just appeared from far away and went through the barriers and we had no time to react. No shots were fired," Bagga said. "I think it's a one-off incident. We've never had anything like this before." The incident took place at around 6:35 a.m (local time), he said.
"We've contacted the Iraqis and we're waiting for them to get back to us as to who the man is," Bagga said, adding the contact person was the senior Iraqi liaison officer.
In the meantime, a Kuwaiti security official, quoted by Kuwait News Agency, said efforts were still underway to find out who the driver is.
"The unknown individual was driving a Japanese-made vehicle with Kuwaiti license plates, but his identity... is still not known," the official stated on condition of anonymity.
"Contacts are underway between the Kuwaiti authorities and UNIKOM in order to find out the identity of the driver and the license plate numbers," he added. (Albawaba.com)
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