[url]http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011216/ts/afghan_us_marines_10.html[/url]
Sunday December 16 4:41 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - Several U.S. Marines were injured Sunday in an explosion at the airport outside the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a spokesman said.
One Marine was seen being loaded onto a Huey UH-1N helicopter and two more walked to the helicopter with assistance.
Capt. David Romley, a Marines spokesman, said they were being evacuated to nearby Camp Rhino, where the Marines have a medical facility.
Romley could not immediately give the exact number of Marines injured or the extent of their injuries.
He said the explosion occurred at the southern end of the runway at about 1 p.m. (2:30 a.m. EST).
The Marines moved into Kandahar's airport on Friday, and plan to shift most of their operations there from Camp Rhino, a desert airstrip 70 miles southwest of Kandahar.
One of their first priorities at the airport was checking for mines and booby traps.
Disposal crews detonated nine caches of weapons Saturday near the airport. The munitions included air-to-air rockets, rocket-propelled grenades, handguns, machine guns and large BMG21 surface-to-surface rockets.
They also detonated unexploded bomblets from U.S. cluster bombs dropped on the area.