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| Tuesday, 25 March 2003 |
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Suspect in Kuwait grenade attack named WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Sunday identified a soldier held on suspicion of a fatal grenade attack on his comrades in Kuwait and military sources said he may have acted out of anger over the war with Iraq. A 27-year-old captain, Christopher Scott Seifert, was killed and 15 servicemen wounded early on Sunday in the attack on a tented command area at Camp Pennsylvania, the rear base for the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. George Heath, a spokesman for Fort Campbell in Kentucky, the division's home base, said the suspect had been identified as Army Sgt. Asan Akbar. Heath said the investigation was continuing, indicating that no charges had so far been laid. One military source, who did not wish to be identified, said of Akbar: "He's a Muslim, and it seems he was just against the war." Heath declined to speculate on a possible motive. "It had to have been something that he placed in a higher position of importance that triggered him to do that, other than the people he ate with, slept with, lived with, breathed with," Heath said. Another U.S. military source said the assault appeared to have been well planned, with the suspect first knocking out a generator that supplied electricity to the three tents, and then lobbing in the grenades. The suspect was also alleged to have opened fire with his rifle before he was tackled and detained when found hiding in a bunker. Akbar, who is from an engineering unit, had apparently been attached to the division for a few months. 'UNBELIEVABLE' The attack took place around 1:30 a.m. just as members of the 101st Airborne Division, a famed fighting force that specializes in rapid air assault advances, was preparing to move into Iraq to join the U.S. and British invasion force. "It is just unbelievable. It's terroristic, it truly is," said Captain James McGahey. "Everybody is a bit jumpy, edgy. You never want, especially at a time like this, to have to think whether you can trust the guy to your left or your right." A spokesman for the 101st Airborne, Major Hugh Cate, said three of the wounded underwent surgery and the other 12 were only slightly wounded. Time magazine correspondent Jim Lacey, who witnessed the attack, described scenes of what he called chaos and carnage when the grenades exploded, saying soldiers thought they had come under Iraqi missile attack and pulled on gas masks. |
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