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CNN Sunday Morning

Three Marines Treated for Land Mine Injuries

Aired December 16, 2001 - 09:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In southern Afghanistan, three Marines are being treated for injuries sustained during a mine clearing operation.

Our Mike Chinoy has the latest from Kandahar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When I arrived here at Kandahar airport with a small group of reporters, escorted by the Marines on Sunday morning, we were warned in the strongest possible terms about the danger of land mines.

The airport is surrounded on three sides by mine fields, and we were out on the runway looking at a mine field in the middle of the morning when we heard a large explosion several hundred yards away.

It turned out to be a team of three combat engineers, one of whom had stepped on a land mine in the field. They had thought that that field was free of mines, and they were making their way to a house they were going to clear.

The man who stepped on the mine suffered serious injuries. Two of his fellow soldiers suffered lighter injuries. The men were brought back here to the airport terminal and put on a helicopter where they were medivaced out to the field hospital at the other Marine base at Camp Rhino.

This is the first time the Marines have sustained casualties since they moved into Kandahar Airport on Friday, and the episode underscores the danger from land mines and unexploded ordinance. We've been told that in every single building in the airport complex, the Marines have found not only mines but rocket-propelled grenades, artillery, surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and ammunition, all of that left behind by al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who fled the airport as the Taliban regime collapsed.

The Marines are systematically going through all of these areas, trying to clear the mines and ordinance and make the airport operational. They want to get humanitarian relief flights in here as soon as possible.

At the moment, only Marine helicopters and C-130 transports are coming in. This episode indicating how difficult it's going to be to make this airport safe enough to return to anything remotely like normal operations.

I'm Mike Chinoy with the U.S. Marines at Kandahar Airport.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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