U.S. Soldier Wounded in Afghanistan Demining Accident

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – A U.S. special operations soldier and a Swiss land mine clearer were wounded when ordnance exploded while they were clearing mines in central Afghanistan, the military said Tuesday.

The American soldier was wounded in the hand Monday night and flown to Bagram air base, the U.S. military headquarters, for treatment. "He is expected to regain full use of his hand," said Col. Roger King, spokesman at Bagram.

A Swiss mine clearer suffered minor injuries in the blast and was treated and released in Bamiyan province, where the incident occurred, King said.

Also Monday, U.S. troops found a large cache of weapons and ammunition in Uruzgan province, near the site where Afghan authorities say a U.S. air raid killed at least 46 people on July 1.

The cache included 181 75mm recoilless rifle rounds, 411 82mm mortar rounds, over 40,000 rounds machine gun ammunition and four tripods for anti-aircraft weapons, King said.