Two US soldiers die in Ethiopian road accident

ADDIS ABABA Mar 6, 2007 (Reuters) - Two U.S. servicemen were killed after the vehicle they were in plunged into a ravine in eastern Ethiopia, the Ethiopian and U.S. governments said on Tuesday.

Another soldier and the Ethiopian driver of the vehicle were also injured in the crash on Monday, the U.S. Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa said in a statement from its base in Djibouti.

"The accident occurred when the vehicle in which the Americans were traveling fell into a deep ravine," Commander Demsash Hailu, spokesman for Ethiopia's Federal Police, told Reuters.

The U.S. military did not say what the soldiers were doing. But soldiers from the task force, which handles counter-terrorism in the region, often train local militaries and carry out civil improvement projects in poor areas.

The crash took place about 48 km (30 miles) southwest of Hurso, which is 170 km (106 miles) west of the border with of Somaliland, the breakaway Somali enclave.

The injured serviceman was flown to a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, on Tuesday morning and was in stable condition. The Ethiopian driver was in serious condition at a French hospital in Djibouti.

The U.S. military is convening an investigation board to determine the cause of the accident, the statement said.

The military did not release the names of the soldiers pending notification of family.

Source: Reuters