WASHINGTON — Kuwait has sought to arrest dozens of U.S. military contractors.

More than 100 American citizens have been stuck in limbo at two U.S. Army bases in Kuwait for months because of a contract dispute.

Industry sources said the Gulf Cooperation Council sheikdom was issuing arrest warrants for Americans accused of violating business agreements. They
said the U.S. military has sought to protect the Americans from arrest by keeping them on bases.

“We are prisoners here,” Faycal Maroufi, a U.S. military translator, said.

The U.S. website Foreign Policy reported that Kuwait has been trying to arrest more than 50 Americans in a dispute between a local firm and a U.S. contractor. The protagonists were identified as Global Linguist Solutions and Kuwaiti subcontractor Al Shora General Trading and Contracting.

“The current situation regarding the American linguists in Kuwait is a legal matter under Kuwaiti law,” U.S. Army spokesman Ron Young said.

So far, several GLS employees have been held or arrested as they tried to leave Kuwait. Dozens of others have been stranded in the U.S. Army bases
at Camp Arifjan and Camp Buehring as the feud between GLS and Al Shora simmers.

“We’re a pawn in a fight between these two companies,” Maroufi, who lives in Florida, said.

Kuwait has served as the leading U.S. military base in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Kuwaiti companies, some of them accused of corruption
and embezzlement by federal audits, played a major role in logistics operations for the U.S. military in Iraq and surrounding countries.

In late September, 19 GLS employees, including Maroufi, filed suit against their company for damages linked to their failure to leave Kuwait.
The attorney for the employees, all of them linguists, said the suit called for “tens of millions” in damages.

The battle between the two companies was linked to a $9.7 billion U.S. Defense Department contract for translation services for American military
personnel throughout the Middle East. GLS, a joint venture of DynCorp and AECOM, was expected to be sued by additional employees.

“American military and civilian officials say they’re doing what they can for the contractors, but have gone out of their way to emphasize that
the entire crisis boils down to a fight between two private companies,”Foreign Policy said.