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More Trouble for Marines in Kuwait

Aired October 10, 2002 - 13:18   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, more trouble for U.S. Marines training in Kuwait. Three of them are injured by an explosion, possibly a mine, during exercise "Eager Mace" northwest of Kuwait City.
CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now from Kuwait City -- hi, Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Kyra from Kuwait. This is being described by U.S. officials as an accident. As you mentioned, three U.S. Marines were injured, one of them seriously, when they were involved in a training exercise up in the area called Udairi, that is a military area. It is about about 45 miles northwest of Kuwait City.

They apparently came in contact with a UXO, unexploded ordinance, possibly a land mine. There is a lot of unexploded ordinance that is remaining in this country, in some areas, left over from the original Gulf War.

It is the third incident involving military personnel in the last three days. Last night, two U.S. soldiers from Camp Doha were driving in a Humvee when they say a civilian vehicle approached them and that they were threatened by an occupant of that vehicle with a weapon.

One of the soldiers in the Humvee fired a single shot at that vehicle. The last they saw of it, it was careening off the road, and they did not stop to investigate.

A subsequent investigation, talked to two people that were inside that vehicle. They are both men, and they say that they did not have a weapon, the only thing in their hands when they approached the Humvee was a cell phone.

But, of course, it comes right after Tuesday's deadly attack in Failaka Island, in which one U.S. Marine was killed and another was wounded.

That was during a training exercise when, apparently, two attackers in a pickup truck approached the Marines and began shooting at them. The two attackers were eventually killed by return fire from the U.S. Marines. The Pentagon is reporting they believe there is an al Qaeda link between the attack and the suspects.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government here continues its investigation, rounding up hundreds of people for questioning. They say they have a number of other suspects in custody, and there is an independent newspaper here that is saying as a result of that Kuwaiti investigation, the government has found plans and diagrams suggesting that there may have been or may still be another plot underway to target a larger facility.

The newspaper called it a multi-story facility. The Kuwaitis reportedly have warned the U.S. that maybe there are plans or at least observations of targets of U.S. facilities such as diplomatic areas, military installations, even possibly schools used by American families.

So things are somewhat on edge in Kuwait this evening -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, as things remain on edge, Marty, is there any possibility that the government will decide to halt the training exercises right now?

SAVIDGE: No. We are told, obviously, the training exercise on Failaka Island was delayed, it was put off for one day. The Marines were pulled back on the ship, that was part of the security measure. But we believe the indications are that they may have moved away from the Failaka Island, and perhaps gone up to Udairi, a training range up there because of security reasons. There was not really a desire to want to end these training exercises simply because of this one, albeit deadly, attack -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Martin Savidge from Kuwait City. Thank you.

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 October 10, 2002 - 13:18   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, more trouble for U.S. Marines training in Kuwait. Three of them are injured by an explosion, possibly a mine, during exercise "Eager Mace" northwest of Kuwait City.
CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now from Kuwait City -- hi, Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you, Kyra from Kuwait. This is being described by U.S. officials as an accident. As you mentioned, three U.S. Marines were injured, one of them seriously, when they were involved in a training exercise up in the area called Udairi, that is a military area. It is about about 45 miles northwest of Kuwait City.

They apparently came in contact with a UXO, unexploded ordinance, possibly a land mine. There is a lot of unexploded ordinance that is remaining in this country, in some areas, left over from the original Gulf War.

It is the third incident involving military personnel in the last three days. Last night, two U.S. soldiers from Camp Doha were driving in a Humvee when they say a civilian vehicle approached them and that they were threatened by an occupant of that vehicle with a weapon.

One of the soldiers in the Humvee fired a single shot at that vehicle. The last they saw of it, it was careening off the road, and they did not stop to investigate.

A subsequent investigation, talked to two people that were inside that vehicle. They are both men, and they say that they did not have a weapon, the only thing in their hands when they approached the Humvee was a cell phone.

But, of course, it comes right after Tuesday's deadly attack in Failaka Island, in which one U.S. Marine was killed and another was wounded.

That was during a training exercise when, apparently, two attackers in a pickup truck approached the Marines and began shooting at them. The two attackers were eventually killed by return fire from the U.S. Marines. The Pentagon is reporting they believe there is an al Qaeda link between the attack and the suspects.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government here continues its investigation, rounding up hundreds of people for questioning. They say they have a number of other suspects in custody, and there is an independent newspaper here that is saying as a result of that Kuwaiti investigation, the government has found plans and diagrams suggesting that there may have been or may still be another plot underway to target a larger facility.

The newspaper called it a multi-story facility. The Kuwaitis reportedly have warned the U.S. that maybe there are plans or at least observations of targets of U.S. facilities such as diplomatic areas, military installations, even possibly schools used by American families.

So things are somewhat on edge in Kuwait this evening -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, as things remain on edge, Marty, is there any possibility that the government will decide to halt the training exercises right now?

SAVIDGE: No. We are told, obviously, the training exercise on Failaka Island was delayed, it was put off for one day. The Marines were pulled back on the ship, that was part of the security measure. But we believe the indications are that they may have moved away from the Failaka Island, and perhaps gone up to Udairi, a training range up there because of security reasons. There was not really a desire to want to end these training exercises simply because of this one, albeit deadly, attack -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Martin Savidge from Kuwait City. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com