Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PRAGUE (AP) — Czech leaders have paid their respects to three service members whose bodies were transported by military plane to Prague after they were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber in Afghanistan.
President Milos Zeman, Prime Minister Andrej Babis and other government and military officials attended a ceremony on Wednesday at Prague's Vaclav Havel Airport together with the families of the three.
Babis described as "heroes" Staff Sgt. Martin Marcin, 36, Cpl. Kamil Benes, 28 and Cpl. Patrik Stepanek, 25.
They were killed while on a foot patrol as part of NATO forces near the Bagram military base in the province of Parwan in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday.
Bells tolled across the country as the plane landed, while sirens rang at noon for 140 seconds Wednesday to honor the fallen soldiers.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
