2 U.S. service members drown in Afghan river

Friday, August 5, 2005; Posted: 12:53 p.m. EDT (16:53 GMT)

(CNN) -- Two U.S. service members drowned after their Humvee slid into a river near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, the military said Friday.

Two other service members also were injured as they fled the Humvee before it entered the Kunar River on Thursday, according to a statement from the U.S.-led Coalition Press Information Center in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The river was swollen from excessive rain and melting mountain snow, the statement said.
One of the injured was treated at the scene, and the other was transported to Bagram Airfield, where he was listed in good condition.

The Humvee was part of a larger convoy conducting operations against "enemy forces" when the incident occurred, the statement said.

News of the deaths came a day after a bomb blast killed a U.S. service member in Afghanistan's Paktika province. (Full story)

The deaths bring the number of American troop fatalities in Afghanistan to 220 since a U.S.-led coalition invaded the country in 2001 to oust the Taliban regime.

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