Berlin ? German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping announced Thursday that experts were being sent to Kabul to investigate the cause of an explosion that killed five German and Danish soldiers as they attempted to destroy two Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles.

Scharping said witness accounts indicated that the explosion was caused by a technical problem, and that the soldiers had followed proper procedure.

Officials said the team, comprising four experts each from Germany and Denmark and another two advisers from Denmark, should complete its investigation in the coming days before filing its report.

“We know from witnesses that it was not prematurely detonated,” said German Gen. Harald Kujat. “We still can’t technically explain the accident, but I want to prevent speculation that the soldiers are poorly trained or don’t have knowledge of the weapons.”

“They were working cleanly and professionally, and we know the system _ it was nothing new,” he added.

At the time of the accident, the detonators that were to be used to set off a controlled explosion were “a significant distance” from the missiles, he said. It remained unclear whether one or both of the SA-3 ground-to-air missiles exploded.

Kujat said soldiers had disposed the same model of missile just days before without incident. Soldiers injured in the blast have yet to be questioned.

The eight injured troops _ five Germans and three Danes _ were expected to be flown to Germany Thursday afternoon. Scharping said they were suffering from trauma and injuries caused by flying splinters, but all were in stable condition.

Also Wednesday, two German sailors died in an accident during NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea. The two men died from the cold after their vessel capsized, throwing them into the water during a transfer between the German ship FGS Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the British Royal Navy vessel HMS Cumberland.

Scharping said high winds had hampered the rescue operation. The cause of the capsize was not immediately clear.