30 Oct 2009

President honours Americans killed in Afghanistan

4:03 pm on 30 October 2009

US President Barack Obama has paid his respects to 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan, the first time he has honoured the fallen in this way.

The bodies of 15 US soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Agency agents were transferred to a morgue on the base.

The BBC reports the president also met their families privately.

His predecessor, George Bush, visited the families of dead troops but never received the bodies at the base, in Delaware.