Iraqi, Kuwaiti clubs to face off

A Kuwaiti football club was to square off against an Iraqi side Wednesday in the first sports competition involving the two countries here since Saddam Hussein invaded his oil-rich neighbour in 1990.
The match, pitting Arbil Club and Kuwait SC, at the 21,000-seat Francois Hariri Stadium in the capital of the autonomous Iraqi region of Kurdistan is the second leg of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) cup quarterfinal, following a 1-1 draw earlier this month.
It is a sign both of warmer ties between the two neighbours, which have clashed diplomatically in recent months over war reparations stemming from the 1990 invasion, and of improving security in Iraq.