From: EurasiaDigest (digest@eurasianet.org)
Date: Mon Jan 10 2005 - 12:23:27 EST
KAZAKH PEACEKEEPER KILLED IN IRAQ
One Kazakh peacekeeper was killed and four others injured in Iraq's Wasit Province on 9 January when a bomb exploded during a munitions-clearing operation, Kazinform reported. Eight Ukrainian servicemen also lost their lives in the incident. A source in Kazakhstan's Defense Ministry told ITAR-TASS that Captain Kayrat Kudabaev was killed and that the wounded were airlifted to a military hospital in Baghdad for treatment. Colonel Zdzieslaw Gnatowski, a Polish military spokesman, told AFP, "An aerial bomb found during mine-clearing operations in the area exploded accidentally when the soldiers were about to make it safe." Kazakhstan's contingent of 27 peacekeepers in Iraq, who are primarily involved in mine-clearing operations, has been a source of heated debate in the country's parliament (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 April 2004). DK
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