14 U.S. soldiers injured in bomb accident in Afghanistan flown to Germany

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By DAVID McHUGH
Associated Press Writer

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – Thirteen American soldiers injured by an errant U.S. bomb in Afghanistan were flown to a military base in Germany on Friday.

The special operations troops' C-141 plane touched down at Ramstein Air Base shortly after 9:45 a.m., and its crew flew an American flag from a hatch behind the cockpit as it taxied toward an ambulance and two buses.

Maj. Bill Bigelow, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, said the wounded Americans were flown in from Oman. Two walked off the plane; the rest were on stretchers.

Military officials initially said 14 wounded soldiers were flown in Friday, but later revised the number to 13. Officials had expected 16 soldiers Friday, and it wasn't clear whether more would be arriving.

The group was taken to the nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where a wounded soldier who arrived Thursday was in intensive care following surgery.

The bodies of two of the three American soldiers killed Wednesday in Afghanistan arrived in Germany on Thursday. The plane also carried the remains of a U.S. sailor who died in an unrelated accident on his ship.

Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, of Massachusetts and Staff Sgt. Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of California were killed Wednesday when a one-ton bomb, intended to hit Taliban forces, landed about 100 yards from their position in souther Afghanistan. Six Afghan anti-Taliban fighters also died.

Three anti-Taliban fighters critically injured by the bomb were operated on for a second time Friday aboard the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea. They were among nine Afghans evacuated to the U.S. warship.

The first surgeries were performed shortly after the wounded men reached the ship Thursday, said Capt. Benjamin Newman, the senior Navy doctor on the ship. He did not describe their conditions.

"Some of these patients have reached the maximum care that we can provide. They are going to need long-term care, and we are not prepared for that," said Newman.

All but three of the 20 Americans wounded in the bombing accident were evacuated from the scene, first to a U.S. Marine base south of Kandahar and then out of Afghanistan. The U.S. Central Command has said the injuries to the 17 "vary from moderate to severe."

It was unclear whether the body of the third American killed Wednesday, Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, of Tennessee, would be brought to Germany.

AP-WS-12-07-01 1412EST