Feb 21, 2008, 14:07 GMT
Beirut - Staff at the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut were evacuated Thursday from the complex after an anonymous threat was made, a Lebanese security official said.
'The embassy received a threat call ... this prompted the evacuation of all employees to search the area,' the source said without elaborating.
An embassy official said the precaution was taken after an unknown caller said the embassy would be targeted with two rockets at 10:00 am (0800 GMT).
Tarek Khaled al-Hamad, the embassy's Charge d'Affaires, told the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation it was the first time the embassy received a direct threat which he said 'must be taken seriously.'
Al-Hamad called on Kuwaitis to be vigilant when moving around in Lebanon, which has seen a rise in violence in recent weeks.
The Shiite speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, in a call with al- Hamad, stressed that the safety of all staff at the embassy was a Lebanese concern and that 'the security forces at the Lebanese parliament are ready to help in assuring security around the embassy.'
Security concerns rose across the country in the wake of the February 12 killing of a top Hezbollah commander, Imad Muganiyeh, in a car bombing in neighbouring Damascus.
The heavily guarded embassy is on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs, a hotbed of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement.
The threat against the Kuwaiti embassy came just days after four Kuwaiti lawyers filed a suit against Shiite MPs on Wednesday for holding a rally in memory of Muganiyeh, who was accused of hijacking a Kuwaiti plane.
The lawsuit was against MPs Adnan Abdel-Samad, who addressed the rally, Ahmad Lari, former minister Abdel-Hadi al-Saleh, former MP Abdel-Mohsen Jamal and municipal council member Fadhel Safar.
Lebanon's Hezbollah does not have a known offshoot in Kuwait, but some people there believe such a group operates underground and refer to it as 'Hezbollah Kuwait.'
MPs in Kuwait cannot be arrested or interrogated unless parliament lifts their immunity which can be done at the request of the public prosecution.
Kuwait accused Muganiyeh of hijacking the Kuwaiti plane in 1988 - the first time that the emirate has officially named him as the perpetrator of the 16-day hijacking.
The aircraft was the second to be hijacked by Shiite militants demanding the release of 17 Shiites imprisoned in Kuwait for bombing the US and French embassies and Kuwaiti targets in December 1983.
They escaped from prison when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990.
Meanwhile, local Lebanese radios said the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry warned its citizens against travelling to Lebanon due to the 'tense situation' in the country.
Last week, Saudi Arabia issued a similar warning to its nationals.
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