US soldier detained over fatal attack on army tents

A US soldier was detained yesterday on suspicion of throwing grenades into three tents at a 101st Airborne command centre in Kuwait, killing one fellow serviceman and wounding 13, three of them seriously.

The motive in the attack “most likely was resentment”, said Max Blumenfeld, a US Army spokesman.

The dead soldier’s name was not released because family members had not been notified, said George Heath, civilian spokesman for Fort Campbell, KY, the storied 101st Airborne Division's home base.

“Incidents of this nature are abnormalities throughout the Army, specifically in the 101st,” Heath said. “Death is a tragic incident regardless of how it comes, but when it comes from a fellow comrade, it does even more to hurt morale. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the soldier. We pray that incidents of this nature do not happen again in any military.”

In Washington, a spokesman for the Pentagon said only that the attack was under investigation.

Initially, the military suspected the attack was the work of terrorists using two grenades and small-arms fire, Heath said. Two Middle Eastern men who had been hired as contractors were detained and released.

An Interior Ministry official said yesterday that they were still investigating all locally-contracted workers in the camp.

Two Kuwaiti translators were also were questioned and released.

“When this happened we tried to get accountability for everybody,” said Col. Frederick B Hodges, commander of the division's 1st Brigade. “We noticed four hand grenades were missing and that this sergeant was unaccounted for.

The suspect, found hiding in a bunker, is from an engineering platoon. His name was not released and he has not yet been charged.

The attack happened at Camp Pennsylvania at 1.30am (10.30pm Irish time) on Saturday. “I immediately smelled smoke,” Hodges told Sky News television. "I heard a couple of explosions and then a popping sound which I think was probably a rifle being fired. It looks like some assailant threw a grenade into each of the three tents."

One grenade went off in the command tent, said Blumenfeld. The tent, the tactical operations centre, runs 24 hours a day and is always staffed by officers and senior enlisted personnel.

Ten of the injured had superficial wounds, including punctures to their arms and legs from grenade fragments, Heath said. The Army did not say if any high-ranking officers were hurt.

The 101st Airborne is a rapid deployment group trained to go anywhere in the world within 36 hours. The roughly 22,000 members of the 101st were deployed February 6. The last time the entire division was deployed was during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which began after Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait.

Most recently, the 101st hunted suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan. Its exploits are followed in Kentucky with much pride.

Camp Pennsylvania is a rear base camp of the 101st, near the Iraqi border. News of the attack at the camp compounded the anxiety of relatives of the division’s soldiers.

“I get a little worried but when I think I should be crying, I’m not,” said Chelsey Payne of Clarksville, Tennessee, whose husband, Sgt. Robert Payne, is with the division.