A US soldier suspected of wounding 13 colleagues in a grenade attack in Kuwait has been taken into custody, US department of defense liaison officer Max Blumenfeld told AFP. "The suspect was taken into custody from the attack on elements of the 101st airborne" division, he said. "The suspect is a soldier assigned to the division. Preliminary information indicates it was carried out by using hand grenades."

The attack happened at Camp Pennsylvania, Blumenfeld told AFP earlier. He said 10 injured soldiers had been evacuated to Camp Arifjan in southern Kuwait.

"Our primary goal right now is to regroup, reconsolidate... our priority is those soldiers," he said.

US journalist Jim Lacey told CNN from the scene that the "carnage was pretty severe".

US troops have been on heightened alert for terror attacks since the United States and Britain launched war on Thursday to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Security is always extremely tight at the Kuwait camps -- the biggest of which, Camp Doha, has been running since the 1991 Gulf war

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Two US Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne Brigade (AFP/Romeo Gacad)