- KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) --
Seven U.S. soldiers were killed and three injured in an explosion Thursday,
U.S. Central Command said. One American soldier was missing.
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- An Afghan interpreter also was injured in the 3 p.m.
explosion near the city of Ghazni, 60 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul.
The soldiers had been working around a weapons cache when the blast happened,
Centcom said in a statement.
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- The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a hospital at
Bagram Air Base, headquarters for U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. Names
were being withheld pending notification of relatives.
-
- Earlier this month, the U.S. death toll in the two-year
war in Afghanistan reached 100.
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- Only 16 Americans died in the lightning war that drove
the Taliban from power at the end of 2001 for providing a refuge and base
for Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, attacks.
The rest of the Americans died after the Taliban's defeat.
-
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- The total number includes deaths in other parts of Operation
Enduring Freedom, such as a helicopter crash in the Philippines nearly
two years ago that killed 10 American soldiers.
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- In November, five U.S. soldiers died in a helicopter
crash near the main U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, apparently due
to mechanical failure.
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- The United States provides 9,000 of the 11,000-member
coalition troops stationed in Afghanistan.
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- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
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ap/20040129/ap_on_re_as/afghan_us_soldiers_killed
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