Crashed Afghan plane: Recovery operation underway

NATO and Afghan troops today began an operation to recover the bodies of 104 people killed in the crash of an Afghan airliner, 10 days after it smashed into a mountain in a snowstorm.

The first clear weather in nearly a week allowed helicopters to ferry NATO de-miners and mountain troops as well as Afghan soldiers to the snow-covered peak 20 miles east of the capital, Kabul, said Lt. Gen. Ethem Erdagi, the NATO force’s Turkish commander.