German, Danish bodies to fly home

The troops were killed trying to destroy two Russian-made SA-3 missiles like these

BERLIN, Germany -- The bodies of five dead German and Danish soldiers killed in an ordnance-clearing accident in Afghanistan are set to be flown home.

Three Danish and two German members of the 18-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in Kabul on Wednesday when two Soviet-era missiles accidentally exploded while they were preparing them for destruction.

All five will first to be taken to a military airfield in Cologne, Germany, and from there the Danish bodies will be flown to Denmark.

Eight other soldiers -- five German and three Danish -- wounded in the incident were in Kabul hospitals or on their way back to Germany and Denmark on military flights on Thursday. (Full story)

An ISAF team investigating the accident have made a fingertip search of the scene, an isolated stretch of barren ground two kilometres (1.5 miles) from where the soldiers were based.

In Berlin, German army chief Harald Kujat told reporters the exact cause of the blast was unknown: "The detonation seems to have gone off early ... even though all procedures had been followed."

Brigadier-General Carl Hubertus von Butler, commander of the security force's German contingent, said among issues to be investigated was why there were so many casualties.

"These soldiers from our German and Danish contingent had been trained and prepared for such an operation and had been doing this kind of operation here for weeks," Butler said.

The deaths were the first among the ISAF since its arrival in December to maintain order in areas of Afghanistan liberated from Taliban rule.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed "great sorrow" for the loss of the Danish soldiers but said their deaths would not change his country's commitment to the U.S.-led war against terrorism.

"It will continue to be a major part of the Danish defence and security policy that we participate in the international fight against terrorism," he told reporters.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent condolences to the families of the dead soldiers, calling it a tragic accident.