Kuwait City ? A Kuwaiti policeman shot and seriously wounded two American soldiers on a desert highway Thursday in the latest violence against U.S. troops who are preparing for a possible showdown with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The soldiers, in civilian clothes, were shot as they traveled in an unmarked car from the U.S. base at Camp Doha toward a garrison near Oraifijan, about 35 miles south of Kuwait City.

The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said a junior patrol officer shot the men and fled to neighboring Saudi Arabia, where he remained at large. The statement did not indicate the assailant’s motive.

Anti-American sentiment is on the rise in the Mideast as military action against Iraq looms. The shooting raised concern about the safety of some 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait, a country that would serve as a key staging ground in any conflict with Iraq.

U.S. troops drove Saddam’s army from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, and most Kuwaitis now support the U.S. military’s role here. But the latest shooting, which follows an attack last month that killed a U.S. Marine, could be an indication of rising resentment.

The patrol officer apparently flagged the Americans’ car down, possibly for speeding, before the shooting, a Kuwaiti official said. But other reports indicated the attacker fired from his car as the Americans passed.

One of the Americans was shot in the face and the other in the shoulder, the Pentagon said; both were expected to survive. Their names were not released by U.S. officials.

One of the soldiers is a reservist based in Lake Charles, La., his wife said Thursday. Geraldine Thomas said an Army sergeant told her by phone that her husband, Larry Thomas, 51, had been shot in the upper chest and was in serious but stable condition after surgery.

U.S. Army soldiers drive a Humvee vehicle along a highway south of Kuwait City. Earlier Thursday two U.S. soldiers were shot in the same area by a Kuwaiti policeman. The two soldiers have been taken to a military hospital in Kuwait. The Kuwait government has sealed off much of the northwest desert purportedly to protect civilians during military exercises. Diplomatic sources said the move was also aimed at reducing the threat to U.S. troops.

“I’m waiting and praying,” she said. “I just know everything is going to be all right.”

Her husband, who works as a mail carrier in Lake Charles, was sent to Kuwait during the summer, she said.

The wounded soldiers did not return fire but drove on to the garrison where they were airlifted to a Kuwaiti military hospital, a U.S. military official said.