Posted on 03/23/2003 4:38:21 AM PST by yatros from flatwater
CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait -- A U.S. soldier was being held early today in connection with a grenade attack on the 101st Airborne Division's infantry brigade. The attack killed one and injured about 15 soldiers.
Eleven of the victims were airlifted to the combat support hospital in nearby Camp Udairi.
The sergeant, whose identity has not been released, was himself wounded either before or during his capture, Army officials said. Early this morning (late Saturday night in Florida), the sergeant was being questioned along with two Middle Eastern civilians, Army officials said. Authorities declined to say whether the two civilians were suspects.
Meanwhile, scouts scoured the desert on foot and in trucks for interlopers, and soldiers remained at high alert.
The attack is believed to be the first successful terrorist attack at the string of U.S. military camps along the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border since troops began arriving last fall.
The sergeant is with the engineering unit attached to the 2nd Battalion of the 327th infantry, commanders said.
"We think he's one of the guys," Maj. Pete Rooks said.
He appeared to have been shot in the legs during or before his capture.
The sergeant, an American and a practicing Muslim, had been guarding grenades during the midnight shift. He came under suspicion soon after the attack, when he -- and four grenades -- were missing.
By dawn today, the sergeant was being held in a Humvee about 100 yards from the tents he was suspected of attacking.
Many of the 4,000 infantrymen and support staff here were roused just before 1:30 a.m. by a deep, concussive blast.
Three grenades were thrown into tents at headquarters, and a fourth was rolled into the tent of brigade commander, Col. Ben Hodges. That grenade did not detonate. Hodges was struck by shrapnel in his right arm, but was later treated and returned to duty.
A smattering of small-arms fire followed the grenade blasts.
Camp guards rousted their colleagues, screaming that they were under attack.
At the cluster of tents in the 2nd Battalion, soldiers raced to a bunker and donned their gas masks, thinking the camp was under attack by mortar fire or other missiles.
A radioman in the bunker received a report, then shouted, "There's enemy in the camp! There's enemy in the camp!"
The camp was pitch dark at the time of the attack, and many soldiers did not have their night-vision goggles. They were scattered around the camp in concrete bunkers and had no clue from which way the enemy might be coming.
Soon squads of soldiers throughout the camp quietly began going tent to tent, their rifle barrels straight ahead, looking for anyone who might have sneaked inside to hide.
Commanders have long warned that terrorism was the biggest threat to U.S. forces massing at the camps for an invasion of Iraq, and the Army has taken steps to prevent such incidents.
All entrances to the six Army camps, Pennsylvania, Udairi, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Victory, are aggressively guarded and patrolled. Towers also are posted at and between each corner of the sand berm around the camps.
(Excerpt) Read more at sptimes.com ...
No disagreement, and in fact points out the horror of this sabotage.
Perhaps all are being smeared by this traitor.
As it should - as properly would have being a Communist Party member in the US armed forces in the 1950's. Leftist anti-McCarthy wheeze has obscured the fact that CP membership in the US was never actually outlawed by the federal government and people had a right to join - even though it was dedicated to the overthrow of the US government. But Communist Party membership was - rightly - a matter of suspicion.
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