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U.S. Soldiers Shot in Kuwait
Aired November 21, 2002 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, the search for a gunman and the motive after two U.S. soldiers were shot and wounded in Kuwait.
Kuwaiti officials say the gunman is a junior officer in the police force. It's not clear right now whether this was an individual act or an act of terrorism.
More on the story now from our Kevin Sites. He's joining us by videophone from Kuwait City.
Kevin, hello.
KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, some new and bizarre details surfacing in this case. As you know, two U.S. servicemen were shot and seriously wounded this morning, while driving a civilian vehicle between Camp Doha and the town of Erashon (ph).
Now, officials in the Kuwaiti minister of information say that that shooter was a Kuwaiti police sergeant, who had stopped the soldiers, said they were speeding, then used his duty weapon to shoot them both at close range, one in the face, one in the shoulder. The police sergeant then reportedly fled to Saudi Arabia. The motivations behind his actions aren't known at this time. But Kuwaiti officials and American officials are investigating.
Now the U.S. Embassy confirms this information that I'm just reporting to you, the information that this was a police sergeant. So that's kind of an interesting detail.
The soldiers didn't return fire after the incident, but they did pull it together enough to actually drive themselves into the town of Erashon (ph), where they were choppered out to a Kuwaiti military hospital here in the capital city. The wounds are serious, as I said, but they're expected to recover.
Now this shooting is just the latest in a series of incidents involving U.S. forces here. The most serious was on October 8, when two Islamic fundamentalists shot and killed one U.S. Marine and seriously wounded another. That was in a training exercise off the Kuwaiti coast on an island. The U.S. currently has an estimated 10,000 troops here in Kuwait. They're on a code mission -- on a training mission code named "Operation Desert Spring." One quarter of Kuwait has been zoned off to civilian use at this point, so that these forces can conduct live-fire exercises. They were doing that on Tuesday here. The official position here is that this is a defensive posture, but these troops with their heavy artillery and tanks could certainly be used in offensive means in a war against Iraq if called to do so -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Kevin, a couple things, and you brought this out a little bit in your report, but with these two soldiers, they were in a civilian car and wearing civilian clothes. So it's interesting that somebody would be able to pick them out as U.S. soldiers if that's a fact, and then the fact that they were shot and yet still able to drive to where they were going to get help.
Well, it looks like perhaps -- yes, working with videophone technology, sometimes we can make the communication, sometimes we can't.
Kevin Sites reporting from Kuwait City.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 21, 2002 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up first this hour, the search for a gunman and the motive after two U.S. soldiers were shot and wounded in Kuwait.
Kuwaiti officials say the gunman is a junior officer in the police force. It's not clear right now whether this was an individual act or an act of terrorism.
More on the story now from our Kevin Sites. He's joining us by videophone from Kuwait City.
Kevin, hello.
KEVIN SITES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, some new and bizarre details surfacing in this case. As you know, two U.S. servicemen were shot and seriously wounded this morning, while driving a civilian vehicle between Camp Doha and the town of Erashon (ph).
Now, officials in the Kuwaiti minister of information say that that shooter was a Kuwaiti police sergeant, who had stopped the soldiers, said they were speeding, then used his duty weapon to shoot them both at close range, one in the face, one in the shoulder. The police sergeant then reportedly fled to Saudi Arabia. The motivations behind his actions aren't known at this time. But Kuwaiti officials and American officials are investigating.
Now the U.S. Embassy confirms this information that I'm just reporting to you, the information that this was a police sergeant. So that's kind of an interesting detail.
The soldiers didn't return fire after the incident, but they did pull it together enough to actually drive themselves into the town of Erashon (ph), where they were choppered out to a Kuwaiti military hospital here in the capital city. The wounds are serious, as I said, but they're expected to recover.
Now this shooting is just the latest in a series of incidents involving U.S. forces here. The most serious was on October 8, when two Islamic fundamentalists shot and killed one U.S. Marine and seriously wounded another. That was in a training exercise off the Kuwaiti coast on an island. The U.S. currently has an estimated 10,000 troops here in Kuwait. They're on a code mission -- on a training mission code named "Operation Desert Spring." One quarter of Kuwait has been zoned off to civilian use at this point, so that these forces can conduct live-fire exercises. They were doing that on Tuesday here. The official position here is that this is a defensive posture, but these troops with their heavy artillery and tanks could certainly be used in offensive means in a war against Iraq if called to do so -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Kevin, a couple things, and you brought this out a little bit in your report, but with these two soldiers, they were in a civilian car and wearing civilian clothes. So it's interesting that somebody would be able to pick them out as U.S. soldiers if that's a fact, and then the fact that they were shot and yet still able to drive to where they were going to get help.
Well, it looks like perhaps -- yes, working with videophone technology, sometimes we can make the communication, sometimes we can't.
Kevin Sites reporting from Kuwait City.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
