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Accident During Live-Fire Exercise Kills At Least Seven Marines In Nevada

NPR's Tom Bowman, reporting for our Newscast Desk

NPR's Tom Bowman, reporting for our Newscast Desk

At least seven Marines are dead and another seven are injured after an accident Monday night in Nevada in which a mortar round exploded inside an artillery tube, military officials tell NPR's Tom Bowman.

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The Marines were taking part in a live-fire exercise, those officials say. "Shell fragments, I'm told, killed almost three [Marines] immediately," Tom says. The others died before they could be evacuated to a hospital.

The Reno Gazette-Journal says the accident happened at the Hawthorne Army Depot, "about 135 miles southeast of Reno." Those killed, officials tell Tom, were from the 9th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.

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