A PASSENGER boat carrying some 150 tourists, including Westerners, sank off the coast of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf last night and residents said more than 40 bodies were found.

THE US Navy has said it is searching for two Iraqi naval vessels that could be trying to lay mines “anywhere” in the Gulf.

A US marine who survived what Kuwait called a “terrorist act” was recovering today as investigators studied how two attackers infiltrated military exercises off the emirate’s coast.

Two Kuwaitis shot at US Marines during war games on an island off the Gulf state today, killing one and wounding another in what the Kuwaiti government called a terrorist act. Fellow Marines shot dead the assailants.

America geared up for war yesterday with Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, warning the country's servicemen that they would be called on to vanquish "powerful and terrible enemies" in the months ahead.