Faylaka Island attack

Failaka Island attack
Failaka Island attack
	A Lithuanian map of Failaka Island with it highlighted, in relation to mainland Kuwait and neighboring countries.
Location	Failaka Island, Kuwait
Date	October 8, 2002 ; 11:00 a.m. (UTC+03:00)
Target	U.S. Marines on a training exercise
Attack type	Motorized small arms assault
Weapons	Kalashnikov rifles, pickup truck
Deaths	3 (including two attackers)
Injured	1 U.S. marine wounded (WIA)
Victims	1 U.S. marine killed †
Perpetrators	Anas Al Kandari and Jassem al-Hajiri †
Assailants	2 armed gunmen
Motive	Jihadism and anti-Americanism

Failaka Island, Persian Gulf

On October 8, 2002, two Kuwaiti citizens with ties to Al-Qaeda jihadists in Afghanistan attacked a group of unarmed United States Marines conducting a training exercise on a Kuwaiti island, killing one before being killed themselves. The attackers were reported to have served as volunteers with the Taliban in Afghanistan, prior to the U.S. invasion of that country in response to the September 11 attacks of 2001.

The Marines were on a training exercise on Failaka Island, an island off the coast of Kuwait. One U.S. Marine was killed and another was seriously injured. The two Kuwaiti attackers were killed after Marines returned fire in self-defense. The marines' rifles were loaded with blank rounds for the training exercise, but they were able to engage their Kuwaiti attackers with their pistols.