Carter says nine soldiers now known to have died in Fort Hood incident

[June 04, 2016]    SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Nine U.S. soldiers are now known to have died when a troop carrier overturned this week during a training exercise at the U.S. Army base of Food Hood in Texas, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Saturday.

Maj. Gen. John Uberti, deputy commanding general III Corps and Fort Hood, speaks to the media outside the Marvin Leath Visitors Center at Fort Hood, Texas June 3, 2016. Fort Hood Public Affairs Office/Handout via Reuters

"Based on initial reports it was a troop carrier that overturned in a stream," Carter told a news conference on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore in reference to Thursday's incident.

"An investigation is under way. As always, we'll get to the bottom of this incident and others that occurred this week."

Also on Thursday, a pilot from the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron was killed when his F/A-18 fighter crashed in Smyrna, Tennessee.

Marine Captain Jeff Kuss of Durango, Colorado, had taken off to start a practice ahead of a weekend air show when he went down about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the runway.

In Colorado the same day, a pilot with the Air Force's Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles (8 km) south of Peterson Air Force Base.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Tom Hogue)

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