Faylaka Island Attack

On October 8, 2002, two Kuwaiti citizens with ties to jihadists in Afghanistan attacked a group of unarmed United States Marines conducting a training exercise on a Kuwaiti island, killing one before being killed themselves. The attackers were reported to have served as volunteers with the Taliban in Afghanistan, prior to the U.S. invasion of that country in response to the September 11 attacks of 2001.

The marines were on a training exercise on Faylaka Island, an island off the coast of Kuwait. One U.S. marine was killed and another was seriously injured. The two Kuwaiti attackers were killed after U.S. marines returned fire in self-defense. The marines' rifles were loaded with blank rounds for the training exercise, but they were able to engage their Kuwaiti attackers with their pistols.

Background

In October 2002, an element of approximately 150 U.S. marines from India Company and Lima Company of Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were on Faylaka Island as part of Eager Mace, a joint annual U.S. and Kuwaiti military amphibious assault training exercise. Eager Mace had begun the previous month and had 2,000 U.S. marines participating in it in total. For the part of the exercise that took place on Faylaka Island, it was conducted by U.S. forces only.

Faylaka Island was a small island belonging to Kuwait, located in the Kuwait Bay off the eastern coastline of mainland Kuwait proper. Prior to the Persian Gulf War of 1991 the island was a resort, but in 2002 the war damage had not been repaired. During the Gulf War, forces of the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied the island, severely damaging it in the process. More than 11 years later, a much of the damage had not been repaired and some buildings still had graffiti painted on them from the war.

The marines on Faylaka had left southern California's Camp Pendleton in June 2002 and had arrived in Kuwait aboard the naval warship after making port calls in several foreign countries. In addition to the usual training duties that were part of the scheduled exercise, the marines were also practicing for a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq amid United Nations deliberations over an alleged Iraqi regime chemical weapons program.

There was a small civilian caretaker presence on the island consisting of Kuwaiti citizens, as well as a few shop owners, which surprised the marines they were under the impression that the island was deserted. Nevertheless, the marines felt safe on the island as Kuwait was allied with the U.S and the Kuwaiti government told them it was safe. There was a small contingent of Kuwaiti police there as well. In addition, the Kuwaiti civilians with whom the marines interacted with were friendly and were seemed glad to have U.S. military forces in their country.

Attack

On October 7, two Kuwaiti men, Anas al-Kandari and Jassem al-Hajiri, sat in a small white-with-red stripes Nissan pickup truck that they had rented and reconnoitered the marines training from a distance. They had spent some time at a local mosque a few days before and had reconnoitered the marines the day prior as well.

The two men were jihadis who had received terrorist training in Afghanistan. They had arrived at the island via ferry at 10:30 a.m. and had been to the island a few times before, where they played soccer and drank soft drinks. Al-Kandari had fasted and prayed before going to the island in October, writing a will in which he demanded that his possessions be given to his fellow jihadis. He recorded a "martyrdom video" at a mosque before going to the island, where he recited some verses from the Quran and gave an oration to the camera urging Muslims to be more devout in Islam and to fight infidels, and lambasted the U.S. for its alleged atrocities against Muslims. Al-Hajiri was al-Kandari's cousin and a 26-year-old man who worked for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Oil.

The following day, October 8, was a hot and sunny day on the island. At approximately, 11:00 a.m., some marines were taking a break and resting at a beach-side campsite during a lull in the training. They did not have live ammunition in their rifles for training purposes, although a few commissioned officers and senior NCOs carried Beretta M9 sidearms with live ammunition. Soon thereafter, the two gunmen began shooting at the marines with Kalashnikov rifles, specifically targeting two marines playing a makeshift game of baseball during a rest in the training. One nearby marine at first thought the gunfire was from his fellow marines, but soon realized otherwise.

The marines were caught off guard. The gunfire struck the two baseball-playing marines, as well as a tent and dozens of cases of soft drinks. The men then drove to another location and then shot again. A marine sentry, Corporal James Cottrell, returned fire with the only M16A2 rifle on the beach with live ammunition. He disabled the truck and critically wounded the driver and his passenger allowing company commander Captain Matthew S. Reid the chance to return fire with his sidearm. The two Kuwaiti gunmen were shot, with one of them exiting the vehicle on the passenger side with several gunshot wounds. Reid and the senior-most enlisted marine on the island, First Sergeant Timothy Ruff, and Company Gunnery Sergeant Wayne A. Hertz then closed with and shot the gunman several more times, killing him. Ruff and other marines, including Hertz, then extracted the wounded driver from the vehicle. That gunman also died. Before the second gunman died, the marines walked up to his body and stood over him. Surrounded by U.S. marines, the mortally-wounded gunman laid dying on the ground and muttered a few phrases in Arabic before dying.

Radio operator Lance Corporal George R. Simpson, Jr., a 21-year-old Ohioan from Dayton, was shot in the arm and Lance Corporal Antonio J. "Tony" Sledd, a 20-year-old Floridian, was shot in the chin and abdomen. An avid baseball fan from Florida's Hillsborough County, Sledd was playing an impromptu baseball game with Lance Corporal Simpson when the former was shot by one of the black-bearded gunmen at point-blank range in the back.

Naval corpsmen assessed the injured marines and came to the conclusion that they needed more care and thus a request was put in to the U.S. Army hospital at Camp Doha for a medical evacuation. Within ten minutes, a U.S. Army UH-60 medical helicopter arrived and flew the two wounded marines to the mainland for treatment at an army hospital in Kuwait City. Sledd was reportedly in good spirits when he was taken away by the helicopter, but he died during surgery the same day. Simpson survived his wounds and was awarded the Purple Heart Medal later that month by a general.

After al-Kandari and al-Haijiri were killed by the marines, reports indicate that the marines then took incoming gunfire from a nearby fishing village, with some of them jumping into the water to avoid being shot, as cover was scarce on a sandy beach. A CH-47 helicopter arrived and distributed ammunition to the marines, who then went into the town to fight the village-based attackers. Eight hours later, the marines concluded and left.

Aftermath

After killing the two attacking gunmen, the marines were unsure if there were any more attackers as there was still incoming gunfire. Once gunfire ceased the marines were unable to find the shooter. The marines of Lima Company set up a defensive posture, requested more ammunition, searched nearby buildings, stopped civilian vehicles, locked down the area, and detained 31 civilians for investigation, including two medical students suspected of being linked to gunman al-Kandari, handing them over to Kuwaiti authorities for further investigation. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was dispatched over the island along with British air force Tornadoes and U.S. Air Force F-16s.

The exercise the marines were a part of, Eager Mace, was originally intended to last three weeks, but was cancelled after the attack.

Though the Iraq War itself would not begin until a few months later in March of the following year, Sledd is considered by some to be the first U.S. combat casualty of the war, as he was killed by hostile fire while training for its commencement. His death became a rallying cry for some marines who knew him, who said, "Remember how and why Sledd died!" Sledd was posthumously advanced to the rate of corporal. Eight days after the attack, the U.S. government passed the ''Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in Guantanamo had their continued detention justified, in part, through a friendship or family relationship with the two attackers.

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{{coord missing, Kuwait

Jihadism
Terrorist incidents in Asia in 2002
2002 crimes in Kuwait
Terrorist incidents in Kuwait