62 Bulgarian Soldiers Drop out of Second Iraq-Bound Unit

Politics | January 14, 2004, Wednesday // 00:00

Sixty-two Bulgarian soldiers dropped out of Bulgaria's 480-strong replacement unit following the attack in the city of Karbala on 27 December, the Chief of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army General Nikola Kolev announced.

The attack wounded twenty-six and killed five Bulgarian soldiers, the country's first fatalities in Iraq.

The new contingent is to replace 480 Bulgarian troops who have been deployed in Iraq as part of a 9,000-strong Polish-led multinational contingent in Iraq.

Some of the tasks of the first Bulgarian unit will be handed over to the coalition forces due to the rising tension among Bulgarian military men after the deadly attack at the end of 2003, the Bulgarian and Polish commandments have agreed.

Bulgaria's second unit is due to head for Iraq in separate groups after January 15.

At an official ceremony in the town of Kazanlak, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov warned the soldiers that some of the Iraqi locals might be hostile to them and called on them to be on the alert.

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