KUWAIT CITY – A criminal court on Saturday convicted seven Kuwaiti Islamic extremists of involvement in the 2002 shooting attack on U.S. Marines (search) that killed one and injured a second during training in the oil-rich country. Three of the militants were sentenced to jail.
They received four- and five-year prison terms for joining an illegal organization and weapons possession. Three others were fined from $680 to $17,000. One was given two years probation and five were acquitted.
The Oct. 8, 2002, attack by two Muslim extremists was the first on U.S. forces in this small Gulf state, which has been a major ally of Washington since the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War (search) liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.
Cousins Anas al-Kandari, 21, and Jassim al-Hajiri, 26, opened fire on the Marines as they took a break from urban assault training on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka (search). They killed one Marine and injured the second other Marines killed the pair on the scene.
The trial of 12 people, most of them religious extremists, accused of conspiring with the cousins or belonging to their terrorist cell opened March 1 of last year. Some faced charges of illegal possession of arms and ammunition only.
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