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Landmine injures soldier, weapons found in Afghanistan

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Jan. 6, 2003) - An 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper is in stable condition after stepping on a antipersonnel landmine during a routine patrol Jan. 4.

The soldier received immediate medical care at the Forward Operating Base, Salerno. He was then transported to Bagram Air Base and subsequently medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, for further treatment. His injuries were not life threatening, officials said.

The soldier's name is being withheld pending next of kin notification.

Further analysis and sweeps of the area around the mine strike assessed the landmine had been buried within the past two weeks, officials said. This was the only mine found in the area, officials added.

The area where the mine strike occurred was not a known danger area, officials said. There are approximately 21 known danger areas in the vicinity of Khowst and coalition forces have cleared three.

On the same day the soldier was injured, U.S. Special Forces conducted cache recovery operations in Spin Bolduk, Kandahar Province, and two villages near Khowst.

The Spin Bolduk cache included more than 1,000 mortar rounds, 93 assorted rocket propelled grenades, more than 300 pounds of high explosives, and 100 assorted anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. The team destroyed the cache in place on Jan. 5.

U.S. soldiers, along with some Afghan military forces, confiscated 30 107mm rockets and a BM-12 rocket from the two villages near Khowst. Both caches were transported to Chapman Airfield for destruction.

In other news, 82nd Airborne Division soldiers donated school supplies from a church in Fayetteville, N.C., and an organization from Sacramento, Calif., to a girl's school in Jabul Saraj on Jan. 5.

Soldiers from CJ9, a civil affairs unit, will deliver 48 cases of food, some clothing and a large tool kit to their newly adopted village, Charchi, for the first time on Jan. 7. Also on that day 452 newly trained Afghan National Army soldiers will graduate. This will be the fifth battalion to graduate. The sixth battalion is 700 participants strong and is in its sixth week of training.

(Editor's note: Nicole Dowell, a Department of the Army intern, compiled this information from press releases out of the Bagram Air Base Press Center.)