The Australian
10 January 2005
EIGHT soldiers - seven Ukrainians and one Kazakh - were killed in Iraq today while attempting to detonate an ammunition cache, a spokesman for the Polish army said.
"I can confirm that seven Ukrainians were killed and one Kazakh," General staff spokesman Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski told Reuters of the incident in Wasit province.
Earlier, Poland's PAP news agency had reported General Andrzej Ekiert, commander of the Polish-led multinational division in south-central Iraq, as putting the death toll at nine.
In Kiev, Ukraine's defence ministry confirmed seven of its soldiers had been killed.
Gnatowski said a single large bomb had exploded while being transported for destruction, injuring an additional seven Ukrainians and four Kazakhs.
Ukraine's parliament has asked outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to withdraw its 1600 troops in Iraq, further depleting the multinational division, whose numbers have already fallen to 6000.
Poland, one of the US administration's staunchest allies in Iraq, has said it will reduce its own 2400 troops in the country by one-third from February and hopes to bring the rest home by the end of the year.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Citation:
"Eight Die in Iraq Explosion", The Australian, 10 January 2005. Original URL:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,11899111,00.html