The Failaka Island attack took place on October 8, 2002, when two Kuwaiti citizens with ties to al-Qaeda jihadists in Afghanistan attacked a group of unarmed United States Marines conducting a training exercise on a Kuwaiti island, killing one before being killed themselves. The attackers were reported to have served as volunteers with the Taliban in Afghanistan, prior to the U.S. invasion of that country in response to the September 11 attacks of 2001.

The Marines were on a training exercise on Failaka Island, an island off the coast of Kuwait. One U.S. Marine was killed and another was seriously injured. The two Kuwaiti attackers were killed after Marines returned fire in self-defense. The marines' rifles were loaded with blank rounds for the training exercise, but they were able to engage their Kuwaiti attackers with their pistols.

In October 2002, an element of approximately 150 U.S. marines from India Company and Lima Company of Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were on Failaka Island as part of Eager Mace, a joint annual U.S. and Kuwaiti military amphibious assault training exercise. Eager Mace had begun the previous month and had 2,000 U.S. marines participating in it in total. For the part of the exercise that took place on Failaka Island, it was conducted by U.S. forces only.

Failaka Island was a small island belonging to Kuwait, located in the Kuwait Bay off the eastern coastline of mainland Kuwait proper. Prior to the Persian Gulf War of 1991 the island was a resort, but in 2002 the war damage had not been repaired. During the Gulf War, forces of the Iraqi Army invaded and occupied the island, severely damaging it in the process. More than 11 years later, a much of the damage had not been repaired and some buildings still had graffiti painted on them from the war.

The marines on Failaka had left southern California's Camp Pendleton in June 2002 and had arrived in Kuwait aboard the naval warship USS Denver after making port calls in several foreign countries. In addition to the usual training duties that were part of the scheduled exercise, the marines were also practicing for a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq amid United Nations deliberations over the Iraqi regime's alleged chemical weapons program.

There was a small civilian caretaker presence on the island consisting of Kuwaiti citizens, as well as a few shop owners, which surprised the marines as they were under the impression that the island was deserted. Nevertheless, the marines felt safe on the island as Kuwait was allied with the U.S and the Kuwaiti government told them that it was safe. There was a small contingent of Kuwaiti police there as well. In addition, the Kuwaiti civilians with whom the marines interacted were friendly and seemed glad to have U.S. military forces in their country.

On October 7, two Kuwaiti men, Anas al-Kandari and Jassem al-Hajiri, sat in a small white-with-red stripes Nissan pickup truck that they had rented and reconnoitered the marines training from a distance. They had spent some time at a local mosque a few days before and had reconnoitered the marines the day prior as well.

The two men were jihadis who had received terrorist training in Afghanistan. They had arrived at the island via ferry at 10:30 a.m. and had been to the island a few times before, where they played soccer and drank soft drinks. Al-Kandari had fasted and prayed before going to the island in October, writing a will in which he demanded that his possessions be given to his fellow jihadis. He recorded a "martyrdom video" at a mosque before going to the island, where he recited some verses from the Quran and gave an oration to the camera urging Muslims to be more devout in Islam and to fight infidels, and lambasted the U.S. for its alleged atrocities against Muslims. Al-Hajiri was al-Kandari's cousin and a 26-year-old man who worked for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Oil.