March 30, 2002	Saturday	Muharram 15, 1423

FORT IRWIN (California), March 29: Three US soldiers were killed in a live-fire training accident at Fort Irwin, California, on Friday, the third fatal US military accident on the home front this month, base officials said.

The victims, all members of the 1st Brigade from Fort Riley, Kansas, were killed when a mortar round detonated as it was being fired early Friday morning at the Army’s National Training Center, about 190 kms east of Los Angeles. One other soldier was wounded.

“The injured soldier was evacuated to Weed Army Community Hospital on Fort Irwin and was listed in stable condition,” a base news release said, adding names of the dead and injured were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The accident comes just over a week after two US soldiers from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division were killed when artillery fire accidentally struck a dining tent at Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York on March 21. The Fort Drum accident also injured seven other soldiers. The troops were eating breakfast in the tent when the rounds hit.

It also followed one day after a US Navy helicopter crashed on Thursday during a routine mission in a remote mountainous area of Central California, killing two of the six crew members.

Fort Irwin’s National Training Center conducts 10 realistic combat training courses per year, hosting between 3,000 and 5,000 troops from various US Army bases per rotation.—Reuters