Kuwait’s top military official has said that the recent US defense department decision to withdraw two anti-air Patriot missile systems from the Persian Gulf kingdom was a “routine procedure” amid Pentagon’s refusal to discuss the move.
Kuwaiti army’s General Chief of staff Lt. Gen. Mohammad Al-Khuder was cited in a Saturday report by the Saudi-based Arab News English-language daily as saying that the pullout of the missile battery by the US military reflected “an interior routine procedure” in coordination with the Kuwaiti army.
“Kuwait’s Patriot missile system, independently, protects and covers all its geographical borders,” he added in a statement quoted in the report.
Patriot missile systems are designed to intercept ballistic and cruise missiles and other airborne threats such as war planes.
US media reported last week that the US military was pulling some of its anti-aircraft and missile batteries out of the Middle East,…