KUWAIT: Two Kuwaitis opened fire on US troops engaged in a military exercise on a Kuwaiti island in the Gulf yesterday, killing one Marine and wounding another in what officials described as a "terrorist" attack.
The Interior Ministry named the dead attackers as Kuwaitis Anas Ahmad Ibrahim al-Kandari, born in 1981, and Jassem Mubarak al-Hajri, born in 1976. "This is a terrorist incident," the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said.
The ministry did not say if they were Islamists but security sources said they were probably linked to such groups.
The attackers made their assault from a pick-up truck on the island of Failaka, where Marines were taking part in the Eager Mace exercise, using live rounds.
A Pentagon spokesman, Col Dave Lapan, said one Marine hit by small arms fire died during surgery at the Camp Doha Armed Forces Hospital. The wounded Marine's condition was not immediately known.
More than 1,000 US marines and sailors are taking part in the exercise with the Kuwaiti military. Though the exercise involves joint US-Kuwait training, Col Lapan said the attack happened while Marines were doing urban assault training that involved only American forces.
The assailants arrived at the area in a pickup truck, which Kuwaiti authorities have impounded, Co Lapan said. Another US defence official in Washington said the assailants apparently shot the two Marines at one site, drove to another location and started firing on other Marines. There, the official said, they were hit by return fire.
The shooting occurred on Failaka Island off Kuwait's coast, said Kuwaiti Ministry of Defence spokesman Brig Ahmed al-Rahmani. The normally uninhabited island is about 10 miles east of Kuwait City and about 30 miles south of the southernmost tip of Iraq.
The island was abandoned by its inhabitants when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and Iraqi forces heavily mined it. After a US-led coalition liberated Kuwait, the government compensated island residents for their property and they resettled on the mainland.