Terrorists Kill U.S. Marine in Kuwait

Terrorists Kill U.S. Marine in Kuwait

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002

KUWAIT CITY – One U.S. Marine was killed and another injured Tuesday by two gunmen in Kuwait, apparently civilians who fired on the Americans during a training exercise on Faylaka Island, according to U.S. Central Command and U.S. Navy officials.

The Marines returned fire and killed the two assailants.

Kuwait's Ministry of the Interior says the assailants were Anas Al Kandari, 21, and Jassim Al Hajri, 26, Kuwaiti Media Attaché Tariq Al Mezrem told United Press International.

"This is unusual for Kuwait, but these men are thugs. We need to put their names out," Al Mezrem said Tuesday in Washington.

"The Kuwaiti government condemns the attack by two terrorists in the strongest terms. Kuwait and America should stand together in fighting this terror."

About 2,000 Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were participating in Eager Mace, an annual joint exercise with Kuwait. Eager Mace is an amphibious training exercise intended to promote coordination between Kuwaiti military personnel and U.S. Marines and sailors. The Marines were rehearsing urban assault when the shooting occurred at 12:30 p.m.

A U.S. Central Command official in neighboring Bahrain told United Press International the bodies of the unidentified gunmen were given to Kuwaiti police, as were 31 civilians taken into custody by U.S. forces.

Faylaka is about 30 miles from Kuwait City, about the same distance from a sliver of shoreline that Iraq has in the Persian Gulf.

The Pentagon is withholding identities of the two Marines until their families can be contacted, but said they were taken to a "nearby military medical facility."

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. David Lapan said, "The information we have now is that they [the attackers] were civilians," according to British Broadcasting Co. "They appear not to be Kuwaiti military."

U.S. defense officials describe the exercises in Kuwait as routine and long planned, not part of a possible attack on Iraq.

U.S. military facilities in Kuwait are under high security for fear of a terrorist attack.

Observers said that Kuwait is one of the strongest supporters in the region of U.S. plans to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The 22-member Arab League, which includes Kuwait, opposes U.S. unilateral military action against Iraq.

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