KUWAIT — U.S. Marines came under small arms fire Tuesday during war games in Kuwait. One Marine was killed and a second was wounded. The two attackers were killed by U.S. forces, the Pentagon said.
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.
Lapan said one 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.
Kuwaiti forces taking part in the war games were not involved in the exercises where the attack occurred.
The shooting took place on Failaka Island off Kuwait's coast, Kuwait Ministry of Defense spokesman Brig. Ahmed al-Rahmani said. The island is about 10 miles east of the capital Kuwait City and about 30 miles from the southernmost tip of Iraq. The island has been uninhabited since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and Navy sailors are taking part in the exercise, dubbed Eager Mace 2002, with the Kuwaiti military. Washington has said the games are routine and not related to any possible war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Kuwait has said it opposed any unilateral military action against Iraq. However, it has said it will allow U.S. forces to use its land for an attack if the war is sanctioned by the United Nations.
The two-week war games began Oct. 1 after the amphibious transport ships USS Mount Vernon and the USS Denver arrived in Kuwaiti waters and started unloading 1,000 Marines and their equipment. The men and women are from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Camp Pendleton, California. The vessels' 900 sailors were also participating in the maneuvers.
American and Kuwaiti forces have been training together since the end of the U.S.-led Gulf War that liberated the small oil-rich state from a seven-month Iraqi occupation. A Kuwaiti-U.S. defense pact signed after the war calls for yearlong exercises.
Camp Doha, an isolated U.S. Army base along the Gulf coast about 12 miles west of Kuwait City, contains pre-positioned equipment for a brigade including M-1 A-1 Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and artillery. Typically, a battalion force is deployed at Camp Doha, including soldiers based there and troops who come through regularly for training.
The U.S. Air Force uses two Kuwaiti bases, Ali Salem air base about43 miles northwest of Kuwait City, and Ahmed Al Jaber air base, 47 miles west of the capital.