KUWAIT Local soldiers are hurt in bus wreck

The unit was on its way to be deployed in Iraq.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
KUWAIT CITY-- A bus carrying American troops rolled over near a Kuwaiti air base over the weekend, injuring 25 soldiers from a Hermitage, Pa., National Guard unit, four of them seriously, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
The Kuwaiti authorities are investigating the accident, which happened Sunday afternoon near the Ali Al Salem air base, Capt. Randall Baucom told The Associated Press.
The bus had been leased from a local company, Baucom said.
News of the accident emerged Tuesday after the local newspaper Al-Anba reported it with Kuwaiti sources.
The four U.S. soldiers who were seriously injured have been admitted to the Kuwait Armed Forces hospital. The other injured were treated at various U.S. camps in Kuwait, Baucom said.
The injured were members of Battery A of the 107th Field Artillery of the 1st Battalion, said Major Grey Berrier, battalion executive officer.
Details on injuries
Details were still sketchy today as he has no direct telephone contact with the soldiers in Kuwait, but Berrier said four soldiers suffered broken bones and 21 others were treated for minor injuries.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, he said.
The unit was on its way from Camp Virginia in Kuwait to the airfield, and members were expected to be deployed in Iraq as military police officers, he said.
The unit was activated in December.
Names of the injured haven't been released.
Kuwait has been a major ally of Washington in the area, since a U.S.-led coalition fought the 1991 Gulf War that liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation.
The small, oil-rich state was the launch pad for the war in Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in April.