Monday, March 07, 2005

On This Day in History: Courtesy of News Links

Bulgaria says soldier killed by U.S. troops

Bulgaria says soldier killed by U.S. troops
Mon Mar 7, 2005 3:05 PM GMT
By Michael Winfrey

SOFIA (Reuters) - U.S. ally Bulgaria has blamed U.S. soldiers for the fatal shooting of one of its soldiers in Iraq and is demanding punishment of those responsible.

A Bulgarian inquiry into the shooting last Friday found that soldier Gurdi Gurdev -- Bulgaria's eighth casualty since the start of the war in March 2003 -- was almost certainly killed by "friendly fire" from nearby U.S. forces.

On the same day, U.S. soldiers shot dead an Italian secret service agent as he was taking freed hostage journalist Giuliana Sgrena to safety.

Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov said on Monday Gurdev was killed when his unit shot warning rounds in an attempt to halt an Iraqi vehicle and then came under heavy fire.

"Someone started shooting at our patrol from the west, and in the same direction, 150 metres away, there was a unit from the U.S. Army," Svinarov told a news conference.

"The result (of the investigation) gives us enough grounds to believe the death of rifleman Gurdi Gurdev was caused by friendly fire."

Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg and President Georgi Parvanov summoned the U.S. ambassador in Sofia, and Parvanov later criticised U.S.-led operations as badly coordinated.

"This is a grave incident, and the confirmation of the facts prompts the conclusion that there are problems in the coordination and operational interaction among the allies," the president said in a statement.

"Bulgaria has undertaken a thorough investigation and will demand punishment for the guilty," the statement said.

Bulgarian Army Chief of Staff Nikola Kolev sent a letter to U.S. military chiefs asking for an investigation to clarify what happened and prevent similar incidents in the future, Svinarov said.

Bulgaria, which joined NATO last year and is an accession candidate for the European Union, has a 430-strong peacekeeping battalion stationed in the Iraqi town of Diwaniya.

Saxe-Coburg's government is one of the United States' staunchest allies, but its military presence in Iraq is unpopular among the Balkan state's 8 million people. Analysts say it could play a role in summer parliamentary elections.

The opposition Socialists have a wide lead over Saxe-Coburg's National Movement for Simeon II party and have promised to withdraw Bulgaria's troops from Iraq if it wins the ballot and leads the next government.

© Reuters 2005.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-03-07T150503Z_01_ULL731963_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-BULGARIA-US.xml

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