BAGHDAD: Kuwait has seized assets of Iraq's national airline in Jordan, Iraqi officials said Saturday, the latest step in a row between the neighboring states over war reparations. Iraqi Airways has filed an appeal against the decision in Jordan, said Karim Al-Nuri, a media adviser to the Iraqi Transportation Ministry. He said Kuwaiti authorities seized the Iraqi Airways office in the Jordanian capital after obtaining a ruling from a court there. “Two days ago, the Iraqi Airways' office in Amman has been seized (by Kuwait) and $1.5 million of its assets have been frozen,” Nuri told Reuters by telephone. Kuwaiti officials could not be reached for comment. Kuwaitis rally for premier's ouster In Kuwait City, around two thousand Kuwaiti youths took to the streets late Friday, despite an unprecedented security presence, to demand the prime minister resign. The demonstrators chanted repeatedly, “The people want to topple the head” of government, a common refrain of anti-regime protests that have spread across the Arab world this year. Hundreds of policemen and elite special forces cordoned off Kuwait City's main Safat square as the demonstrators gathered 150 meters away, but the protest passed off without any violence. “Freedom, freedom, we want a popular government,” they shouted. Speakers and activists made it clear however that they were not protesting against the emir or the ruling family, but for the replacement of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah who has been in his post for five years.
