Iraqi troops in Kuwait have begun rounding up American and British visitors staying at two hotels in Kuwait for transport by bus to Iraq, the British Foreign Office said Monday.
In a separate report, Britain's domestic news agency, Press Association, quoted an unidentified Foreign Office spokesman as saying that a total of 366 people had been assembled, mostly passengers from the British Airways flight stranded in Kuwait since the invasion.West Germany demanded Monday that Iraq let Germans leave occupied Kuwait and Iraq following reports of foreigners
being moved. Iraq invaded Kuwait on Thursday.
The British spokesman said it was not clear how many visitors were being removed or if other nationalities were involved. The spokesman could not be identified in keeping with government policy.
It also was not known if they were being taken to Baghdad or to another Iraqi city, the spokesman said. He would not identify the source of his information.
The British and U.S. visitors were staying at a transit hotel at Kuwait airport and the SAS hotel in Kuwait city.
The British spokesman said the Iraqi move did not appear to involve foreigners who live in Kuwait, including about 3,000 British citizens.
Shortly after their invasion of the country early last Thursday, Iraqi troops removed 34 British military advisers to Baghdad where they are still being held under armed guard.
Diplomats Monday reported full-scale Saudi military mobilization and the deployment of armored columns next to a neutral oil-extraction zone beside Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. Iraqi forces, 100,000 strong, reportedly were poised inside Kuwait on the other side of the neutral zone.
Reports from Kuwait belied Baghdad's claims its troops had started to withdraw and said military movement began on the Saudi side of the border.
Western and Middle East diplomats based in Riyadh said Saudi armored columns moved north overnight and were deployed on the edge of a neutral oil-extraction zone administered by Kuwait and also possessed by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabian news services announced a full mobilization of the nation's armed forces, which has about 95,000 troops and top-range fighters supplied by the United States.