Four US servicemen were killed while blowing up unexploded ordnance near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, an Afghan official said today.
"It was not an act of sabotage. It was an accident," Mr Khalid Pashtoon, a spokesman for the provincial government said.
He said a fifth serviceman was seriously wounded in the explosion that occurred after they had laid explosives to blow up ammunition.
A CNN reporter in Kandahar said he had seen three body bags brought by helicopter to a US airbase near the city.