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| Arabia |
| Marines on exercise attacked by gunnies — one dead... |
| 2002-10-08 |
| A U.S. Marine was killed and another was wounded Tuesday when they were attacked by small arms fire — apparently by civilians — during war games in Kuwait. If they have guns and they shoot at you, they're not civilians... The Marines were involved in a live-fire exercise at the time of the attack, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said. The two attackers were shot dead by U.S. forces. The shooting occurred on Failaka Island off Kuwait's coast, Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense spokesman Brig. Ahmed al-Rahmani said. The island is about 30 miles east of Kuwait City and about the same distance from the southernmost tip of Iraq. I believe Iraq has also laid claim to Failaka in the past. One of the Marines' operations in Gulf War I was tossing them off... Lapan said the slain Marine died during surgery at the Camp Doha Armed Forces Hospital. The wounded Marine's condition was not immediately known. Their names were withheld until relatives were told of the attack. Al-Rahmani could not provide any information about the two dead assailants. Everyone will be really interested in who they were... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #7 I think prudence will probably demand that from this point on... |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-10-09 12:17:34 |
| #6 The shooters were killed by MPs. Looks like the marines did not have live ammo. The article states: "The Marines were participating in an exercise and were not using ammunition at the time of the attack. " Er, seems to me that our guys should have at least one clip on hand in that neighborhood. |
| Posted by: Mike Cakora 2002-10-09 11:44:03 |
| #5 I suspect the point of the word "civilians" is to emphasize that these weren't rogue Kuwaiti military, i.e. that we can safely hold live-fire exercises with them again. As long as they secure the island, next time. |
| Posted by: Dan Hartung 2002-10-08 15:50:33 |
| #4 From ABCNEWS.com: K U W A I T, Oct. 8 — Two Kuwaiti gunmen in a pickup truck attacked U.S. Marines during war games in Kuwait Tuesday killing one and injuring a second before the attackers were shot dead when they raced off to attack a second group of troops, military officials said. A brief statement by the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said the incident was "a terrorist act." It identified the two attackers as Anas al-Kandari, born in 1981, and Jassem al-Hajiri, born in 1976. "The Ministry announces that this is a terrorist act," the statement said. "It will not allow anyone to undermine the country's security." |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-10-08 14:44:58 |
| #3 Radio report must have been wrong. Everything I read elseware says they got snuffed. CNN says they were ID'd as Kuwaiti nationals and bodies turned over to Kuwait. The Marines they shot up were on urban training exercise using blanks. They had no live ammo to shoot back, when the gunnies drove off they ran into a CP that did. I also read a Arab site that said they were ID'd as Asian nationals. |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-10-08 14:20:14 |
| #2 Here's the latest I've seen... "The Marines were conducting live-fire urban assault training when they were attacked, apparently by civilians, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan said. The assailants got to the area in a pickup truck, which was impounded, Lapan said. The two were killed after opening fire on the marines, said Pentagon spokesman Navy Lt. Dan Hetlage. There were conflicting earlier reports about whether the assailants were killed, or wounded and arrested." If they're still kicking, it'll be nice to have some large men with moustachios and truncheons chat with them. Al Qaeda? Indignant locals with a love of firearms? Or Iraqi agents? |
| Posted by: Fred 2002-10-08 11:59:31 |
| #1 FLASH:Just heard on radio that the two gunnies were not killed, but were taken alive! This should be interesting. |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-10-08 11:37:58 |