U.S. Marine killed by gunmen

KUWAIT -- U.S. officials said Wednesday they were investigating whether al Qaeda had any links to two gunmen who killed a U.S. Marine and wounded a second in Kuwait. Friends and relatives said the attackers had been to Afghanistan and sought to "walk in the footsteps of Osama bin Laden."\nKuwait called the shooting a "terrorist act" and detained more than 30 people in a search for the accomplices of the gunmen, who were shot dead by U.S. troops after the attack.\n"It is a concern about whether or not there are connections between those who shot the Marines and al Qaeda, and we do not rule that out," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.\nAnother U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers' links to al Qaeda were being investigated.\nThe two gunmen drove up in a pickup truck Tuesday and opened fire on Marines engaged in urban assault training on Failaka, an island 10 miles east of Kuwait City. The attackers then drove to a second location and attacked again before being killed by Marines, the Pentagon said.\nThe Pentagon identified the slain Marine as Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd, 20, of Tampa, Fla. His body was to be flown home "within 24 hours," said Lt. Garrett Kasper, spokesman for Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain.\nThe wounded Marine, who was not identified, will be flown to a military medical facility in Germany "as soon as he is stable enough for travel," Kasper said. He said his wounds were not life-threatening but would not give details. A Kuwaiti Defense Ministry source said Wednesday that the man was wounded in the stomach.\nThe Kuwaiti Interior Ministry identified the assailants as two Kuwaitis, Anas al-Kandari, born in 1981, and Jassem al-Hajiri, born in 1976.\n"This is a terrorist act," the ministry said. "(We) will not allow anyone to undermine the country's security."\nFriends and relatives said the two attackers were cousins and attacked the Marines out of anger at the killings of Palestinians by Israel.\nAl-Kandari was in Afghanistan for a year and a half and he had chosen to walk in the footsteps of Osama bin Laden," Mohammed al-Awadi, a Muslim cleric who said he was a friend of the attackers, told AP on Wednesday.\nAl-Hajiri was in Afghanistan for six months with his cousin, said the cleric. Both returned days before last year's Sept. 11 attacks.\nAl-Kandari was very moved by footage of Palestinians killed in the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories days before the attack, the cleric said. An Israeli raid Monday in the Gaza town of Khan Younis that left 15 Palestinians dead and more than 100 wounded has been heavily covered by Arab television stations.\n"Every Muslim believes Americans are helping Jews, and he was burning to do something to help," Al-Kandari's brother, Abdullah, told AP in a telephone interview.\nAbdullah al-Kandari said he had known nothing of his brother's plans. Afterward, relatives found a will in his desk in which he asked that his body not be washed before burial. The Muslim corpses traditionally are washed, but some believe it is an honor for those considered martyrs to be buried stained with the blood they spilled for their cause.\nThe two attackers were buried Wednesday.\nA member of al-Kandari's clan, though not a close relative, is among 12 Kuwaitis held by U.S. forces in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Khaled al-Oda, who heads a non-governmental group campaigning for the prisoners' release.\nSheik Mohammed Al Sabah, Kuwait's foreign minister, refused to comment Wednesday on newspaper reports and claims by the friend and brother that linked the two suspects to bin Laden's al Qaeda network or that they had militant training in Afghanistan.\nSeveral Kuwaitis have been tied to bin Laden, whose group is blamed for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks--most notably, al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who was stripped of his Kuwaiti citizenship in October 2001, and Kuwaiti-born Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is suspected of being a Sept. 11 mastermind.\nKuwaiti authorities began rounding up those suspected of providing "assistance to the terrorists," Sheik Mohammed told reporters. Police said more than 30 people had been detained.\nKasper said investigators were trying to determine how the attackers were able to drive into an area that U.S. security had closed to civilian traffic. After the shooting, Marines found three AK-47s and ammunition in the attackers' truck.\nOn its Web site, the U.S. Embassy urged Americans in Kuwait to be vigilant.\nKuwait has been a Washington ally since a U.S.-led coalition liberated the emirate from Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf War. More than a decade later, most Kuwaitis support the close relationship.\nFailaka Island was abandoned by its inhabitants when Iraq invaded in 1990, and Iraqi forces heavily mined it during their occupation. The island has since been cleared of mines and many Kuwaitis fish there on weekends.\nThe military exercises resumed Wednesday The war games, dubbed Eager Mace 2002, started Oct. 1 and involve some 1,000 Marines from the 11th Expeditionary unit based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. and around 900 Navy sailors.\nThe U.S. military has carried out exercises in Kuwait since the Gulf War. The Pentagon says the current war games are not related to any possible war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.\nKuwait opposes any unilateral action against Iraq and fears retaliation with non-conventional weapons if the United States attacks Baghdad. It has said the United States could use its land for an attack if the war is sanctioned by the United Nations.