Terrorists Launch Second Attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait

Terrorists Launch Second Attack on U.S. Marines in Kuwait

NewsMax.com Wires
Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002

WASHINGTON – Armed gunmen Wednesday fired on U.S. forces traveling in an armored Humvee on a road in Kuwait, the second attack in two days, a defense official said.

The attack was another "hit and run" assault, but this time took place on the Kuwaiti mainland north of Camp Doha, the U.S. installation there. U.S. forces returned fire on the vehicle. There are no reports of casualties on either side.

The attack follows the fatal shooting Tuesday of a 20-year-old U.S. Marine who was participating in a military exercise on Faylakah Island, about 10 miles off the coast of Kuwait. The two gunmen, who were later shot to death by U.S. Marines, were Kuwaitis whom the Pentagon believes had connections to al-Qaeda.

Trained by al-Qaeda

The two Kuwaitis received training from al-Qaeda in a camp in Afghanistan and have relatives in the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

That attack appears to have been locally planned and executed, an official told United Press International, but not necessarily at the direction of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden.

The assailants' bodies were given to Kuwaiti police, along with 31 other civilians rounded up on the island, who are being held as possible material witnesses.

The Kuwaiti government is holding "two to four" people believed to have participated in the attack. One other person believed to be involved is at large, the official said.

The Defense Department identified the Marine killed on Tuesday as Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd, 20, of Hillsborough, Fla. Sledd was assigned to Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

A second Marine sustained a non-life-threatening injury to his arm.

Kuwait's Ministry of the Interior identified the assailants as Anas Al Kandari, 21, and Jassim Al Hajri, 26, Kuwaiti Media Attaché Tariq Al Mezrem told UPI.

The two gunmen fired on the Americans at around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday while they were conducting an urban assault military training exercise on Kuwait's Faylakah Island, according to U.S. Central Command and U.S. Navy officials.

Al Kandari and Al Hajri, dressed in civilian clothes, fired from a pickup truck and then headed to a nearby security or command post, where they were shot by other Marines, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

Marines found three AK-47 assault weapons and ammunition inside the truck, U.S. Central Command reported.

The Marines were withdrawn from the island exercise after the attack but returned Wednesday to continue training, according to Pentagon officials. There were no Kuwaiti military forces on the island at the time of the attack, Clarke said.

How Did Attackers Get So Close?

Pentagon officials say they are reviewing force protection procedures to determine how the assailants got close enough to the exercise to shoot.

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 exercise was not live-fire, meaning the Marines who were targeted were firing only blanks.

Faylakah Island is a sparsely populated island about 10 miles out to sea from Kuwait City, about 30 miles from a sliver of shoreline that Iraq holds on the Persian Gulf. The island was occupied by Iraqi forces during the Persian Gulf War and was heavily shelled by the battleship USS Missouri, and by the Air Force with a 15,000-pound "Daisy Cutter" BLU-82 bomb, according to a Pentagon official.

Kuwait has condemned Tuesday's attack as the work of terrorists. Acting Prime Minister Sheik Sabah al Sabah sent a cable Wednesday to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressing his country's condolences and condemning the attack.

Kuwait is one of the United States' strongest supporters in the Middle East. However, the 22-member Arab League, which includes Kuwait, opposes unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq.

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