DOHA, Qatar'Gunmen opened fire Tuesday on U.S. Marines conducting an urban warfare exercise on a Kuwaiti island, killing one American and wounding another in an attack highlighting growing tensions in the Arab world as the United States prepares for a possible attack on Iraq.
The Marines, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., returned fire with their M-16s and killed the two gunmen. Kuwait declared the attackers to be terrorists but did not immediately tie them to any specific group.
Pentagon officials said security would be increased at all U.S. bases in the region but did not say whether they regarded the shooting as a terrorist attack.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with other senior military officials, and spoke by phone with commanders of U.S. forces in the region to discuss other possible responses, a Pentagon spokesman said.
The Kuwait government identified the two gunmen as Kuwaiti citizens Anas Kari, born in 1981, and Jassan Hajiri, born in 1976, and described them as Islamic extremists. The Interior Ministry declared that it \will not allow anyone to undermine the country's security.'
