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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 27, 2003

54 Spanish Peacekeepers Killed in Air Crash

Fifty-four Spanish soldiers of the international peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan were killed Monday in an air crash over Turkey on their way home after their four-month mission in Kabul, a top peacekeeper said.


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54 Spanish Peacekeepers killed in Air Crash
Fifty-four Spanish soldiers of the international peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan were killed Monday in an air crash over Turkey on their way home after their four-month mission in Kabul, a top peacekeeper said.

Brigadier General Robert Bertholee, acting commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed earlier media reports that a Ukrainian aircraft carrying Spanish military personnel crashed in northwest Turkey, some 50 kilometers from theBlack Sea early in the day.

Reports said there were no survivors in the accident.

"The charted Ukrainian Yak-42 airplane carried some 54 Spanishsoldiers who left the Afghan capital city on Sunday evening, heading for home after having finished their mission in Kabul," Bertholee told reporters with the Spanish and other ISAF member flags at half mast in the ISAF headquarters in downtown Kabul.

"We realized that we all here, the IASF community, are deeply shocked, because we have worked with many of those soldiers, some of them we would have known personally, and others we would know just by face," the general said.

"But our thoughts are with our comrades who died in the accident and our deep sympathy with the relatives and friends of our comrades back in Spain, and also with friends here in the Spanish contingent of ISAF," he said in a brief statement.

Monday's air crash was the biggest setback for the multi-nation ISAF troops since they arrived here in December 2001 on a UN-mandated mission to maintain security and order in the Afghan capital city.

Over 4,500 soldiers from 29 countries are patrolling in Kabul and surrounding areas as well as helping reconstruction efforts and providing humanitarian assistance in the capital city.

Spain currently contributes some 120 soldiers to ISAF, most inengineering units which are tasked with construction work and explosive ordnance disposal.

So far about 20 ISAF soldiers have been killed and around 50 to 60 injured, mostly due to accidents in action including a German helicopter crash in last December.

Earlier it was reported a total of 62 Spanish soldiers and 12 crew members were on the ill-fated plane, which had made a stopover Monday night at an airport in Bishkek, capital of Kirgizstan.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government expressed its deep sympathy to families of the Spanish soldiers who died in the accident and the government of Spain.

"The peacekeepers who perished in this tragic incident contributed toward world peace, but unfortunately paid with their lives at the end of their mission while heading back home," said astatement of the Foreign Ministry.


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