Accomplices Sought In Marine Death

Kuwait was searching for accomplices to what it called a "terrorist act," a gunfight that killed a U.S. Marine, wounded another and left two attackers dead, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

Authorities were taking "steps to round up those who we think provided assistance to the terrorists," Sheik Mohammed Al Sabah, Kuwait's minister of state for foreign affairs, told reporters.

Earlier, police officials had said more than 30 friends and relatives of the attackers were detained for questioning.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that the two assailants pulled up in a pickup truck and opened fire on Marines engaged in urban assault training on Failaka, an uninhabited island about 10 miles east of Kuwait City. The attackers then drove to another site on the island and attacked again before being killed by Marines, the Pentagon said.

The injured Marine "was recovering from non-life threatening injuries," Lt. Garrett Kasper, spokesman for the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, said Wednesday.

Kasper would not provide the Marine's name or details about his wounds. Earlier, the Fifth Fleet had said the Marine was hit in the arm. A Kuwaiti Defense Ministry source, though, said Wednesday he was injured in the stomach and would be flown to Germany for further treatment. The body of his colleague also would be flown to Germany, the Kuwaiti source said.

After the shooting, Marines found three AK-47s and ammunition inside the attackers' truck, according to a statement released in Washington by the Fifth Fleet.

The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry condemned the attack and identified the assailants as Anas al-Kandari, born in 1981, and Jassem al-Hajiri, born in 1976. It said both were Kuwaiti civilians.

"The ministry announces that this is a terrorist act," the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry said in a statement. "It will not allow anyone to undermine the country's security."

A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the two men as fundamentalist Muslims.

U.S. intelligence is still trying to determine whether either man belonged to al Qaeda or some other terrorist group, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin A Kuwaiti source says one of the men had the same last name as several members of a large Kuwaiti clan who are being held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Sheik Mohammed refused to comment Wednesday on Kuwaiti newspaper reports that the two were linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, or on reports that they had militant training in Afghanistan.

Khaled al-Oda, who heads a non-governmental group campaigning for the release of 12 Kuwaitis among the terror suspects held by U.S. forces in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said one member of al-Kandari's clan were among the detainees, but none were close relatives of the man killed Tuesday.

The U.S. Embassy issued a statement on its Web site Tuesday reminding Americans in Kuwait to be vigilant.

Failaka Island was abandoned by its inhabitants when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and Iraqi forces heavily mined it during their occupation.

After a U.S.-led coalition liberated Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, Kuwait compensated islanders for their property and resettled them on the mainland. The island has since been cleared of mines and many Kuwaitis fish there on weekends. Some former residents visit occasionally.

Kuwait has been a Washington ally since the Gulf War. More than a decade later, most Kuwaitis support the close relationship.

The Marines were training in urban warfare at a time when the Pentagon is planning to send troops into Baghdad, reports Martin. They have temporarily returned to their ships, but they are part of a much larger Marine force that would be involved in an invasion of Iraq. That, too, could have been the reason for the attack, but whatever the motive, it was strong enough to convince two Kuwaitis to undertake what amounted to a suicide mission.

The war games started Oct. 1, after the amphibious transport ships USS Denver and USS Mount Vernon arrived in Kuwaiti waters and began unloading 1,000 Marines and their equipment. The men and women are from the 11th Marine Expeditionary unit based in Camp Pendleton, Calif.

While the marines on the ground were coming under fire, the 900 sailors on the ships were training for another kind of attack, reports CBS News Correspondent Kirk Spitzer: a terrorist assault from small boats.

"One: there are a lot of small boats out there," said Capt. Brad Johanson. "Two: they move very fast by comparison to a ship like the Denver."

The U.S. military has carried out exercises in Kuwait since the Gulf War as part of a defense agreement the small oil-rich state signed with Washington. The Pentagon has said the current war games were routine and not related to any possible war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Kuwait opposes any unilateral action against Iraq and fears retaliation with non-conventional weapons if the United States attacks Baghdad. However, it has said the United States could use its land for an attack if the war is sanctioned by the United Nations.

Kuwait's politically powerful Muslim fundamentalists want Saddam removed from power, but many believe President Bush's real motives for waging war are to revive the foundering U.S. economy and to weaken Arabs out of support for Israel.

Two years ago, Kuwaiti authorities arrested three Kuwaitis they said plotted attacks on Camp Doha, an army base used by U.S. forces in Kuwait, and on the homes and cars of Western military personnel.