Bodies of shot German hikers handed over to US troops

(6 Sep 2011) 1. Wide of Afghan police vehicles carrying the bodies of the dead Germans 2. Various of the bodies in the back of the police truck 3. US soldiers preparing to receive the bodies 4. Wide shot of US soldiers carrying the body on a stretcher, laying it on ground 5. US soldiers putting body into body bags 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Staff Sergeant Ashley Waruch, US soldier: "Once they are properly identified. We''ll be able to notify the families and give the families some final closing. Then once they''ve been properly identified, families have been notified, the remains will be able to be returned back to the family members, so they can go back to their final resting place and then finally have an end to all this." 7. Wide shot of US soldiers carrying the bodies away on stretchers STORYLINE: Afghan police retrieved the bodies of two Germans found on Monday on a remote mountain after they disappeared while hiking in Parwan province nearly three weeks ago. Police hiked to the site in the Kush mountains on Tuesday and carried the bodies down, a Parwan province police chief said. The bodies were then handed over to US soldiers, who loaded them into vehicles. A US soldier at the site, Staff Sergeant Ashley Waruch, said that, once officially identified, the bodies would be flown back to their families. The bodies were badly decomposed making it difficult for officials to determine the cause of death. Initial reports indicated they had been shot, but a Salang district police chief aid on closer inspection the Germans might have died from blunt trauma. It was also unclear when they died. A spokesman for the Afghan agriculture ministry said the two worked for a German development and assistance organisation, GIZ. He added that they were advisers to the agriculture ministry and that they regularly went hiking in the mountains in Parwan. A spokesman for GIZ declined to comment, referring all queries to the German Foreign Ministry. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle confirmed that two bodies were found in Parwan province but refused to give any further details until they had been identified beyond doubt. The region where the Germans disappeared is not a Taliban area. Last month (August) Afghan police speculated the two men could have got lost in the high mountains or may have been the victims of a crime. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/31f9bd1faf0f3eae2d9658ab6ff2d15b Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork