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U.S. Navy SEAL Killed Near Kandahar
Thursday, March 28, 2002
(18:15 GMT)
By Barbara Starr
The Cable News Network

A sign warning about land mines stands by a road near Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Image Credit: The Associated Press.

PENTAGON -- CNN
The U.S. Central Command confirmed on Thursday that a member of U.S. Special Operations was killed and another service member was wounded by an explosion of enemy munitions outside Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The dead man was a Navy SEAL identified as Chief Petty Officer Matthew J. Bourgeois, 35, from Tallahassee, Florida.

Bourgeois was serving as a hospital corpsman. He became the 31st military death in the U.S.-led war on terror.

The second victim's identity has not yet been released, but his wounds were not life-threatening, officials Thursday told CNN.

The explosion, at around 11 p.m. EST on Wednesday, was apparently triggered by someone stepping on what officials described as an "enemy ground-placed munition," at a site southeast of Kandahar.

Officials say they are not sure if the victims stepped on a land mine or a piece of unexploded ground ordnance. The accident happened at a site where U.S. troops are trained in the removal and neutralization of munitions such as land mines.
(More: CNN Online News Source)
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