MANAMA, 23 October 2007 — Two women US sailors were shot dead and a third was wounded in their barracks here yesterday but the US Navy said it did not appear to be an act of terrorism. “There are no indications of terrorism or a base intrusion. Initial reports indicate the incident involved US military personnel only,” said a statement from the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet which is headquartered in Bahrain.

The shooting occurred at around 5 a.m. in the US base in the Jufair region, east of the capital Manama. Following the shooting incident at the US Naval Support Activity, two sailors were pronounced dead and the third sailor who sustained critical injuries was taken to hospital for treatment. The incident is under investigation, the military said, adding that the base had been closed for an hour after the shooting.

A spokeswoman for the Fifth Fleet said the two dead personnel were women. The military said it would not disclose the names of the victims until the next of kin had been informed. A senior Bahraini security official, meanwhile, said a soldier had fired at his two colleagues before trying to commit suicide.

“According to our information, the wounded soldier opened fire on the two other soldiers before trying to commit suicide by turning the gun on himself. He was seriously wounded,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, in a statement carried by the state news agency BNA, said the incident was “a criminal matter” resulting from “an argument between the three soldiers.”

News of the double-shooting had raised fears the sailors were victims of a terror attack. Bahrain earlier this month charged four nationals with belonging to a banned organization, the Al-Qaeda network, following reports that a cell was plotting attacks against US targets.

Three of the suspects are due in court today, while a fourth remains at large outside Bahrain. The small Gulf archipelago has been designated by Washington as a major non-NATO ally and also has a free trade agreement with the United States.

But it has become a focus of anti-American demonstrations over the past few years with police using tear gas to disperse around 300 demonstrators protesting outside the US Embassy in Manama at the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin in 2004.

— With input from agencies