The spokesman told the state KUNA news agency that a Patriot missile intercepted the Iraqi missile before it was able to enter Kuwaiti airspace.

The sirens had wailed for the first time since Saturday, only hours after defence forces fired another Patriot missile after a monitoring station reported a hostile object in the skies over the north of the country.

Al-Qabas newspaper Tuesday reported the missile fired the night before was a Silkworm which mistakenly hit a fuel tank in the Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr, causing a huge explosion.

Some 18 missiles have been fired at Kuwait since the start of the war in neighbouring Iraq, but they have caused relatively little damage.

Two people were slightly injured early Saturday when a low-flying Silkworm missile landed in the sea close to the emirate's largest and most popular waterfront shopping mall in the heart of the capital.

SPACE.WIRE