VIDEO SHOWS: AIRCRAFT WITH COFFINS ARRIVING AT VACLAV HAVEL AIRPORT IN PRAGUE, SOLDIERS CARRYING COFFINS, RELATIVES SAYING GOOD BYE TO THE VICTIMS
RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT
SHOWS: PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC (AUGUST 8, 2018) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)
1. PLANE ON RUNWAY OF VACLAV HAVEL AIRPORT
2. SOLDIERS TAKING COFFIN OUT OF PLANE HOLD
3. MILITARY GUARD ARRIVING
4. VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS CARRYING THE COFFINS
5. SOLDIERS PUTTING THE COFFINS ON THE CATAFALQUE
6. CAMERA OPERATORS FILMING, CHAPLAIN ADDRESSING SOLDIERS
7. SOLDIERS LISTENING
8. SOLDIERS STANDING NEXT TO COFFINS
9. SOLDIERS LISTENING
10. SOLDIERS SALUTING NEXT TO COFFINS
11. SOLDIERS LISTENING
12. SOLDIERS MOVING COFFINS TO HEARSES
13. PHOTOGRAPHERS
14. VARIOUS OF COFFINS BEING TAKEN TO HEARSES WITH VICTIMS' RELATIVES FOLLOWING
15. RELATIVES WALKING
16. CZECH PRESIDENT, MILOS ZEMAN, GREETING VICTIMS' RELATIVES
17. OFFICIAL GUESTS LEAVING
18. SOLDIERS MARCHING AT END OF CEREMONY
STORY: The bodies of three Czech soldiers killed in a suicide attack over the weekend in Afghanistan returned to Prague on Wednesday (August 8) in a ceremony attended by the president and other top officials marking the deadliest incident involving the army's foreign missions in four years.
The incident on August 5 near Bagram Air Field in eastern Afghanistan brought the number of Czech soldiers killed in foreign missions to 28 since the country's 1989 transition from communism to democracy.
It was the first such loss since four soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan in 2014 in the bloodiest incident in the Czech Army's modern history.
The fallen - Martin Marcin, 36, Kamil Benes, 28, and Patrik Stepanek, 24 - were part of NATO's Resolute Support Mission to which the Czech Republic contributes nearly 250 soldiers.
A state plane accompanied by Czech Air Force jets brought the Czech soldiers' bodies to Prague airport. A convoy of military and burial service vehicles transported the soldiers to the central military hospital.
