Rhune
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Grenade Attack
« on: Mar 27th, 2003, 8:27am » |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon has confirmed that a second serviceman has died of wounds suffered in a grenade attack in Kuwait that has been blamed on a U.S. Army sergeant.
The victim was identified as Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, 40. He was a member of the Idaho Air National Guard based in Boise, the guard has confirmed.
Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, a spokesman for the Idaho Air National Guard, said Stone was an air liaison officer with the Army's 101st Airborne Division at Camp Pennsylvania in Kuwait.
"He was an outstanding example of a citizen-airman," Marsano said.
Sgt. Asan Akbar, a combat engineer with the 326th Engineer Battalion of the 101st Airborne, is in custody in connection with the attack.
He is accused of lobbing four grenades at tents of soldiers at Camp Pennsylvania, the Kuwaiti headquarters of the division's 1st Brigade, and allegedly shooting at service members as they fled the tents.
Three of those grenades detonated in the attack Sunday.
Capt. Chris Seifert, 27, from Easton, Pennsylvania, also was killed in the attack, and 14 others were injured.
A military magistrate at Camp Doha in Qatar on Monday found probable cause for Akbar to be tried. The magistrate determined that he must remain in custody pending a pretrial investigation.
The Army stressed that Akbar is innocent until proven guilty.
The soldier was transferred Tuesday to the Mannheim Confinement Center, a maximum security facility at Coleman Barracks Army Airfield, about 60 miles south of Frankfurt, Germany.
The facility -- officially known as the U.S. Army Confinement Facility-Europe -- is the largest U.S. military confinement center outside the United States. It houses military personnel from the European theater and Middle East suspected of crimes.
Officials have yet to decide whether Akbar will be held in Germany or brought back to the United States.
The Army said many of those injured in the attack returned to duty within 24 hours and others will return "within days." Five of the most seriously injured were transported to Landstuhl, Germany, for additional care.
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