DUBAI (Reuters) – Kuwait’s government said on Wednesday state news agency KUNA had been hacked and this had resulted in an incorrect report being issued saying U.S. military forces in Kuwait would be withdrawn imminently.
Tareq al-Muzarem, head of Kuwait’s government communication office, announced the hacking of KUNA in a statement on an official Twitter account.
KUNA said the incorrect U.S. troop withdrawal report, which appeared on KUNA’s Twitter feed, did not originate from the agency and was the result of a hacking. It did not say who might be to blame.
The initial report had said Kuwait’s defense minister had received a letter from a U.S. commander saying American forces would be withdrawn from a camp in Kuwait in three days.
Iranian forces fired missiles at military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for the U.S. killing of an Iranian general, raising the stakes in its conflict with Washington amid concern of a wider war in the Middle East.