KUWAIT — The two Kuwaitis who attacked U.S. Marines this week were part of a group that planned more assaults on Americans, an Interior Ministry official said today.
The men also are believed to have trained in Afghanistan, but no connection between them and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network has been established yet, the official said on condition of anonymity.
A U.S. official in Washington said the Kuwaitis are believed to have trained in bin Laden's Afghanistan camps last year and fought anti-Taliban forces, but there is no indication they attacked the Marines under orders from al-Qaida.
Questioning of some 60 suspects and witnesses since Tuesday's shooting that killed one Marine and injured another have led to a "cell of around 15 people" that was headed by Anas al-Kandari, one of the attackers, the Kuwaiti official said.
Al-Kandari, 21, and his 26-year-old cousin, Jassem al-Hajiri, both Muslim extremists who trained and fought in Afghanistan, drove up and opened fire on Marines taking a break from urban assault training on the island of Failaka, 10 miles off the coast of Kuwait City.
One Marine was killed and a second was wounded. The attackers then drove to a second location and attacked again before being killed by Marines.
"Yes, there is a group behind Anas and Jassem . . . and they were planning other operations including some against American installations that could have been the embassy and housing of personnel connected to the military," the Interior Ministry official said.
The official confirmed the attackers trained in Afghanistan but said, "So far, there has been no proof of their connection to al-Qaida."
The government has called the attack a "terrorist act."
The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, issued a worldwide warning that Americans "need to remain vigilant" because of "the continuing threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians." Embassies in the Middle East relayed the warning to Americans today.
The warning did not specifically refer to the Kuwait shooting.
Information gleaned from several people detained in Kuwait and from other, unspecified sources led the Pentagon to believe that similar small-scale attacks were planned against other American interests in Kuwait, a U.S. defense official in Washington said Thursday on condition of anonymity.
The two dead attackers are believed to have trained in bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan and fought anti-Taliban forces there last year, the official said. The attackers also have relatives detained with suspected al-Qaida and Taliban members at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, the official said.
However, another U.S. official in Washington said while there are indications the two men have ties to al-Qaida, authorities still are working to confirm whether they trained at bin Laden's camps.
Both officials said there is little evidence thus far to believe the men were acting on the orders of al-Qaida leaders.
The violence has startled many in Kuwait, a close U.S. ally where people generally consider the United States a friend that liberated their country from Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf war.
But some Muslim fundamentalists, who are politically strong in Kuwait, consider the U.S. presence here as a source of corrupting influence.
Scores of Kuwaitis have fought with Muslims in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Bosnia, but they have not attacked Americans in Kuwait — even at the height of the U.S.-led war on terror.
A friend and a relative of al-Kandari said the man and his cousin were moved by footage of Palestinians killed days before the attack in an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip.
The Pentagon identified the slain Marine as Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd, 20, of Tampa, Fla. The wounded soldier was Lance Cpl. George R. Simpson, 21, of Dayton, Ohio. Both men were assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Pendleton, Calif.