Bodies recovered from crashed plane

Afghan and Nato troops dug through deep snow yesterday to recover remains of some of the 104 victims of a crashed airliner from a mountain near Kabul where they have lain for the past 11 days.

Bad weather and the steep terrain had prevented recovery of bodies of the passengers and crew of a Kam Air Boeing 737 from the 3,300-metre Shapiri Ghar mountain since it crashed there on February 3, killing all on board.

A Defence Ministry statement said "a few" bodies were taken off the mountain yesterday and work would continue until all had been found, a process officials say could take weeks.

A Reuters Television News cameraman who reached the site 30 km southeast of Kabul on an Afghan military helicopter saw a woman's body strapped to a seat in the tail of the plane.

A Kam Air official identified her as a Russian flight attendant, but did not give her name. Her body was loaded onto a helicopter and flown to Kabul's military hospital, where remains will be kept for identification.

Among those aboard were more than 20 foreigners, including nine Turks, six Americans, three Italians and an Iranian. At least four Russians and a Canadian were among the crew. The pilot was Russian and the first officer Canadian.

The tail of the aircraft was on a ridge, but other parts of were far down the mountainside, adding to the difficulty of recovery work.

Afghan soldiers used long-handled shovels to dig through the snow in search of bodies, while mountain rescue troops from Afghanistan's Nato-led peacekeeping force lowered themselves by rope down ridges to try to reach other parts of the crash site.

Among those taken to site were two relatives of victims.

"We are sure they are all dead, but we need to find their bodies," said Gul Ahmad, whose cousin had been aboard the plane.

The 23-year-old 737 disappeared from radar screens while approaching Kabul after a flight from the western city of Herat in Afghanistan's worst civil aviation disaster.

The cause of the crash remains unclear.