August 22, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 23, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

BAGRAM, Aug 21: A US soldier died from wounds and another was slightly injured by a bomb in separate incidents in the same Afghanistan province, the US military said on Thursday.

“A special operations service member died as a result of injuries received during operations in the vicinity of Orgun, in Paktika Province, on Wednesday,” the statement on the US military’s Central Command Web site said.

It said the soldier’s name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

AFGHANS INJURED: In Paktika on Wednesday, at least three Afghan civilians were wounded when a US military helicopter fired on their car near Urgun district, police chief Dawlat Khan told Reuters.

Mr Khan said a woman was among the wounded treated in a local hospital, but he added that family members did not know the whereabouts of four other occupants of the car.

“We do not know if they were killed in the attack or escaped for the fear of more rockets being fired at them,” he said.

US military spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis said an Apache AH-64 helicopter opened fire on a truck with 30mm cannon and rockets after it was seen “speeding aggressively” towards coalition forces conducting combat operations.—Reuter