Six soldiers from Poland, Slovakia and Latvia killed defusing munitions in Iraq

AP ^ | 01:56 PDT WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- | MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer

[Grzegorz 246]

A massive explosion tore through an Iraqi munitions dump Tuesday, killing six soldiers from Poland, Latvia and Slovakia as they were defusing munitions. The one Latvian and three Slovakian soldiers were the first deaths from either of the two countries in Iraq, said Polish Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski, spokesman for the Army Chief of Staff in Warsaw. Two Polish soldiers were also killed, bringing the total number of Polish military deaths in Iraq to six. The explosion occurred at about 9 a.m. as the soldiers were working near the city of Suwariyah, southeast of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki, spokesman for the Polish-led international force in Iraq, in a telephone interview. Suwariyah is under the control of Ukrainian troops that belong to the 17-nation stabilization force in south-central Iraq, but Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Kostyantyin Khivrenko said none of his country's troops were involved in the incident. Some troops also suffered injuries, but none seemed to be life threatening, Gnatowski said. Both the Latvian and Slovakian Defense Ministries confirmed the deaths of their soldiers. "I can confirm that a Latvian explosive ordnance specialist, while trying to disarm a bomb with other coalition soldiers, has been killed," Latvian Defense Ministry spokesman Ivars Grinbergs told AP. "We are still investigating the incident to try to find out how it could have happened," Poland contributed troops to the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein and now commands an international force of 6,200 troops, including some 2,400 of its own and some 1,600 from Ukraine. Slovakia has 105 soldiers deployed in Iraq. Most are there for de-mining work. Latvia, which joined NATO last month, currently has 122 soldiers stationed in Iraq, most of them serving alongside Polish troops.

[AMDG&BVMH]

"trying to disarm a bomb"

A bomb?!? How could there be a bomb? Iraq was disarmed, wasn't it? (sarcasm)

Seriously, we need to acknowldege the sacrifices of the brave allies of the US in this thankless endeavor.

Explosive ordnance specialists have a very difficult and dangerous profession. May God Bless them.

[lizol]

And this shift was supposed to be back home within a month. Poor families.

[SpikeMike]

The report from the polish military investigators says the soldiers were attacked by terrorists who fired three mortar rounds from the distance of 2 kilometers. One of those rounds hit a truck full of disarmed explosives which the engineers defused as a part of their mission.