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Seven Ukrainian troops, Kazakh dead in Iraqi accident: ministry

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  • Seven Ukrainian troops, Kazakh dead in Iraqi accident: ministry

    Agence France Presse -- English
    January 9, 2005 Sunday 3:35 PM GMT

    Seven Ukrainian troops, Kazakh dead in Iraqi accident: ministry

    KIEV Jan 9

    Seven Ukrainian soldiers and one Kazakh died in Iraq Sunday after a
    bomb they were about to defuse went off accidentally, Ukraine's
    defense ministry said.

    Another seven Ukrainian and four Kazakh troops were injured as a
    result of the accident, which occurred at 12:05 pm in Iraq's central
    Wasit region, where Ukrainian and Kazakh troops serve under Polish
    control, it said in a statement.

    It said the explosion occurred after a team of Kazakh sappers and
    their Ukrainian backup had brought back for defusion some 35 aerial
    bombs that Iraqi police had found stashed near the central military
    base of As Suwayrah.

    "After they were loaded off, there occurred an explosion of a large
    magnitude, the reasons for which are still being investigated," the
    statement said.

    "As a result of the blast, seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed and
    seven received injuries of varying degrees. One Kazakh soldier was
    killed and four Kazakh troops were injured," it said.

    The injured were given first aid in the Ukrainian camp and then
    rushed to a military hospital in Baghdad by helicopter, the statement
    said.

    "The defense ministry expresses its deepest condolences to the
    relatives and close ones of the soldiers killed," it said.

    Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has also sent condolences to the
    families of those killed, according to a statement by the presidency.

    In Warsaw a Polish military official said the soldiers had died as
    they were trying to deactivate a bomb.

    "An aerial bomb found during mine-clearing operations in the area
    exploded accidentally when the soldiers were about to make it safe,"
    Polish military spokesman Colonel Zdzieslaw Gnatowski told AFP.

    On the orders of the Polish commander of the multinational division
    of which the Ukrainians and Kazakhs are members, General Andrzej
    Ekiert, the mine-clearing operation was halted to investigate the
    exact causes of the incident, Colonel Gnatowski said.

    Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and Polish chief of staff
    General Czeslaw Piatas expressed their sympathy to the families of
    the victims as well as to the governments in Kiev and Almaty, an
    official statement released in Warsaw said.

    More than 1,600 Ukrainian troops have been deployed since August 2003
    in Iraq's Wasit region where US-led coalition forces are under Polish
    command.

    Prior to Sunday's deaths, Ukraine has lost nine of its troops, with
    another 20 injured.

    In the heat of Ukraine's election saga in December, the Kiev
    parliament approved a resolution that demanded outgoing President
    Leonid Kuchma withdraw Ukrainian soldiers from Iraq.

    Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko, who won a rerun presidential
    election to succeed Kuchma, has also come out in favor of a quick
    withdrawal of Ukrainian troops.

    After the January 30 elections in Iraq, the 5,500-strong Polish force
    will include troops from 15 countries.

    The countries contributing are Armenia, Bulgaria, Denmark,
    Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Norway,
    Romania, Salvador, Slovakia, Ukraine and the United States.

    Poland has lost 13 soldiers and four civilians since the beginning of
    the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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