US forces on highest alert in Saudi, Kuwait

NOV 1: The US forces in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were put on the highest security alert because of a "credible threat" of terrori...

NOV 1: The US forces in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were put on the highest security alert because of a "credible threat" of terrorist attacks against unspecified targets, the Pentagon said.

"In both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, US forces are now on the highest alert level, which is threat condition delta," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said yesterday.

"It is due to credible threat information involving unspecified targets," he said.

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The latest actions raised to five the number of countries in the region where the US forces have gone to the highest alert level in response to threats since the October 12 bombing that killed 17 US sailors and crippled a billion dollar Destroyer in the Yemeni Port of Aden.

Threat condition delta normally is invoked either after a terrorist attack has occurred or intelligence indicates a terrorist action against a specific location is likely.

US forces in Bahrain and Qatar were put on the highest alert level on October 21 in response to multiple threats of attacks against specific locations, and US forces in Yemen went to threat condition delta immediately after a small boat blew a 12 by 12 metre hole in the USS Cole.

The last time the US forces in the region were put on threat condition delta was after the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

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In a related development, the navy said no US warships have gone through the Suez Canal since the suicide attack on the Cole.