Twelve US soldiers wounded in Iraq were said to be in a stable condition after being flown to a US military hospital inside Germany.
The soldiers were the first casualties of the war to arrive in Europe, arriving at the Ramstein air base from Kuwait yesterday morning.
Seven had combat-related injuries, and three others were seriously injured.
Unconfirmed reports said some of the soldiers were those injured when a US soldier of the 101st Airborne Division in Kuwait threw a grenade into a tent.
One soldier was killed in the explosion and seven were injured.
The soldiers were carried off the plane yesterday, some connected to drips while others wore visible head bandages.
They were brought to a nearby military hospital at Landstuhl, where two soldiers were immediately placed in intensive care, said Ms Marie Shaw, the hospital spokeswoman.
The Landstuhl medical centre is the biggest US military hospital outside the US, and has treated US soldiers wounded during the attempt to rescue US hostages in Iran in 1980.
The hospital also treated those involved in the Ramstein air show disaster in 1988, when an Italian plane crashed and killed 70 onlookers.
Last week, the hospital doubled its capacity to 300 beds. During the 1991 Gulf war the hospital was treating around 1,000 soldiers at one time.
Ramstein air base was the centre of controversy in Berlin yesterday after a government spokesman admitted he did not know whether jets involved in the Iraq war were starting from or landing at the base.
Mr Bela Anda, the government spokesman, said he had "no knowledge, personally" of what goes on at the US base.
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has ruled out any German participation in the war, but has promised fly-over rights and strategic support at US army bases.
Meanwhile, Mr Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, says he sees no reason to withdraw German personnel from NATO surveillance planes patrolling Turkish skies near its border with Iraq.
Mr Fischer threatened to withdraw the personnel from the AWACS planes if Turkey became involved in the war.
Yesterday he said he had received personal assurances from Ankara that it was not planning to march into Iraq.
