Security News > 2020 > January > Kuwait Denies US Troop Pullout, Says News Agency Hacked
Kuwait on Wednesday denied reports that the United States had decided to withdraw its troops from the Gulf state, saying the Twitter account of its official news agency had been hacked.
The state-run Kuwait News Agency tweeted that the Kuwaiti defence minister had been informed by the commander of US forces in the emirate of their intention to withdraw from the Arifjan base within three days.
"The account of Kuwait News Agency was hacked... The report about the intention of the US troops to pull out is untrue," government spokesman Tareq al-Mazrem said in a statement.
The United States said on Friday that it was deploying up to 3,500 more troops to the Middle East with reprisals expected after an American drone killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. The Kuwait incident comes after a US letter apparently signalling a pullout of forces from Iraq caused alarm, before the White House and the Pentagon said there were no such plans and that the letter was merely a draft.
Kuwait's Arifjan Base, which lies 70 kilometres south of the capital and close to the border with Saudi Arabia, is the main US base in Kuwait.