Wife flies out to soldier in UN blast

By SCOTT MACLEOD

The wife of a New Zealand soldier wounded by a bomb blast in Iraq will be reunited with her husband at a secret location in the Middle East before she brings him home.

Penny Hart left Palmerston North yesterday to travel to Christchurch, from where she will this morning board an Air Force Boeing 757 aircraft taking New Zealanders to Afghanistan.

Her husband, Major Todd Hart, was injured by a huge blast that killed at least 24 people and wrecked a United Nations building in Baghdad last week.

He was to be shifted yesterday from a US military hospital in Kuwait to the care of New Zealanders operating an Orion aircraft as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The Air Force refuses to say where the Orion is based.

Air Force spokesman Wing Commander John Seward said Mrs Hart would travel with an Army nursing officer who would care for Major Hart while he flew home next Monday.

He said Major Hart had lacerations to his face and right arm and a more serious cut to his left arm. Early reports of a broken arm were incorrect.

Mrs Hart's family did not want to talk about her departure yesterday. The couple have three children and live near Major Hart's base at Linton.

Herald Feature: Iraq