U.S. troops suffer food poisoning

KUWAIT CITY -- More than 250 U.S. military personnel have been treated for food poisoning after eating at a camp south of Kuwait City, and 13 of them are hospitalized, an American military spokesman said Wednesday.

Most of the 271 Army soldiers, Navy sailors and Marines were treated Monday for symptoms of food poisoning at the Oraifijan installation.

They were "released back to work within 24 hours," Sgt. First Class David Dismukes said.

"We don't know at this point what it is," Dismukes told The Associated Press, declining to say if terrorism was suspected. He said laboratory test results of the water they drank were negative. Test results from the food were expected in 24 hours.

Thirteen soldiers were still being treated for "a food-borne gastrointestinal illness," Dismukes said.

U.S. contractor Brown and Root provides food to the facility, about 35 miles south of Kuwait City. The company also does cleaning and general labor, Dismukes said.

There are around 12,000 U.S. military in Kuwait, a major ally of Washington in the Gulf. Most are involved in exercises under a defense pact signed after the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.

A U.S. Marine was killed and a second was wounded Oct. 8 when two Kuwaiti Muslim fundamentalists opened fire on a group of Marines taking a break from training on the island of Failaka. The attackers were killed by other Marines. On Nov. 21, a Kuwaiti policeman shot and seriously injured two U.S. soldiers after stopping their car on a highway.

Kuwait could become a launching pad for a U.S. attack on Iraq if the United Nations approves.