10 U.S. Troops Found After Djibouti Crash, Military Says

10 U.S. Troops Found After Djibouti Crash, Military Says: "10 U.S. Troops Found After Djibouti Crash, Military Says

Associated Press
Sunday, February 19, 2006; A15

NAIROBI, Feb. 18 -- Rescue crews called off operations Saturday after the U.S. military said it had accounted for 10 American troops who went missing after two transport helicopters crashed into the sea but declined to reveal their fate until family members were notified.

The U.S. military normally acknowledges any successful rescue of servicemen, as it did Friday when it announced that two injured crew members were recovered from the crash site.

In saying that the 10 previously missing crew members had been accounted for, the U.S. military command in Djibouti did not indicate that they had been recovered alive.

'We are not giving additional details on the status or condition of the crew out of respect for the next-of-kin,' said Maj. Susan Romano of the U.S.-led Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

The CH-53E choppers, carrying a dozen crew members and troops from the counterterrorism force, went down Friday in the Gulf of Aden, near the northern coastal town of Ras Siyyan.

The two rescued crew members were flown Saturday to the U.S. military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in southern Germany, Romano said. They were in stable condition.

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