Investigators aboard Kursk warned today (Wednesday) of complications in work to remove Kursk’s fearsome arsenal of 22 Granit cruise missiles.

        Eight of the weapons have already been unloaded from the vessel, but the fraught and dangerous task is proving difficult, said Vladimir Navrotsky, spokesman for the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet.

        The rest of the missiles aboard are located in a damaged area, hampering recovery work, the official said in a report from Associated Press, quoting Russian news agency Interfax.

        "Work in that direction proceeds slowly because the missile containers that were located closer to the bow of the vessel were somewhat damaged," Navrotsky said. "The deformation occurred as a result of the explosions in the submarine."

        Another report quoted navy officials saying retrieval of some starboard missiles presented problems as one of the containers encasing them was filled with water.

        Northern Fleet officials said 18 coffins holding sailors' remains had already been flown to their hometowns. Interfax said this afternoon that officials of the Russian prosecutor-general’s office had identified 39 bodies and that four of the 18 flown home had been buried.

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