Posted on 03/24/2003 2:36:48 PM PST by JohnHuang2
The Muslim U.S. soldier accused of killing a division captain and wounding 15 fellow soldiers in a grenade and automatic weapon attack on members of the Army's 101st Airborne Division encamped in Northern Kuwait made anti-American statements after he was apprehended, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"You guys are coming into our countries and you're going to rape our women and kill our children," Army Sgt. Asan Akbar was overheard as saying by soldiers who survived the attack.
Akbar, 31, is being held for allegedly rolling grenades into three tents where officers and senior noncommissioned officers were sleeping, and shooting at least two fellow soldiers as they raced from their tents.
Following the explosion of the first grenade the suspect shouted, "We're being attacked!" officers told the Times.
"The first thing I thought was some sort of commando attack, or a terrorist raid," the commander of the division's 1st Brigade, Col. Frederick B. Hodges said.
Hodges narrowly escaped, when an incendiary grenade rolled into his tent, setting it on fire.
"I was furious," the brigade's command sergeant major, Bart Womack, who shares the tent with Hodges added. "I was thinking, 'How did the enemy get into our camp?'"
Womack shook the colonel awake just as a fragmentation grenade exploded next to his cot, spraying shrapnel and wounding Hodges.
The duo stumbled over each other in the smoke as they struggled to get out of the tent. The colonel emerged first, only to be shot in the leg by the suspect who had been lying in wait by the tent entrance with his rifle.
Womack said Akbar then ran to the next tent a few paces away and tossed a fragmentation grenade inside. When an officer ran out, Womack told the Times, "The guy just stopped, shot the officer in the back when he paused to put on his mask, then he kept on running."
Akbar was subsequently caught carrying two grenades and a standard-issue M-4 automatic rifle. His leg was bleeding, apparently cut by shrapnel.
Of the sixteen soldiers injured, 11 were evacuated by helicopter, reports Army Times. One soldier, whose name has not been released, died later of his injuries.
The Army identified the soldier who died as Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, 27, of the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division.
Camp Pennsylvania was named to honor the victims of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania during the Sept. 11 attacks. The camp, located approximately 20-30 miles south of the Iraqi border, is surrounded by large berms and guarded by armed soldiers, with others in observation posts watching the desert. The camp is also home to Patriot missile batteries.
The paper reports the attack leaves many at the remote camp feeling vulnerable and betrayed.
"It's bad enough we have to worry about enemy forces, but now we have to worry about our own guys," Spc. Autumn Simmer told the Times. Simmer had been sleeping in a row of tents behind those that were attacked.
The motive in the attack ''most likely was resentment,'' said Army spokesman Max Blumenfeld, but he did not elaborate.
Two high-ranking U.S. Army sources say Akbar was opposed to the killing of Muslims and opposed to the war in Iraq, according to NBC News.
The Muslim soldier reportedly had become a concern to his commanding officers. Military criminal investigators said he was recently reprimanded for insubordination and was told he would not join his unit's push into Iraq.
Other soldiers told Sky News that Akbar had been acting "weird" for days.
Akbar graduated from Locke High School in Los Angeles. He also studied at the Masjid Bilal Islamic Center, a predominantly African American mosque in South-Central Los Angeles.
Those who knew Akbar from the past expressed disbelief that he could be responsible. Imam Hasan told the Times that the Akbar he remembered was a quiet, shy and studious boy who stayed out of trouble, even normal schoolyard scuffles and roughhousing.
"He was never a troublemaker," Hasan said. "I'm remembering him as a kid and listening to what he's charged with, and it doesn't compute. It's completely against the character of the person I knew."
Akbar's mother, Quran Bilal, told the Chicago Sun-Times her son has been accused simply because he is a Muslim, and that he had feared problems due to his faith.
''He said, 'Mama, when I get over there, I have the feeling they are going to arrest me just because of the name that I have carried,'" Bilal continued.
''He's not like that,'' she said. ''He said the only thing he was going out there to do was blow up the bridges. He was never like that.''
She told the paper her son did not participate in the first Iraq war because his religion created a ''conflict of interest."
The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper in Clarksville, Tenn., reported that the FBI combed Akbar's apartment complex in that town early Sunday, looking for clues.
Dennis Olgin, a former Army prosecutor told Fox News Akbar could be charged with treason, but murder and attempted murder would be easier to prove.
The penalty of life would be the minimum if Akbar were to be charged and convicted of murder.
Everyone who believes this statement, raise your hand.
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