| ROMANIAN SOLDIERS ON INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS 01/09/2008 |
| (2008-09-01) |
| Last updated: 2008-09-02 15:10 EET |
Another Romanian soldier died in the line of duty in Afghanistan, while another four were wounded Sunday, during a patrol mission between Qalat and the capital of Kabul, as one of the armoured personnel carriers in a group of four drove over an improvised explosive device. Sergeant major Dragos Traian Alexandrescu, aged 32, was married and had two children.
He had been working for the Defence Ministry since 2003, and was on his first mission in Afghanistan. His twin brother works in the same battalion. This is the seventh Romanian serviceman killed in Afghanistan. In June, another Romanian, Claudiu Marius Covrig, aged 29, was killed and three others were wounded in a grenade attack claimed by the Taliban, the insurgents’ first direct attack against the Romanian troops on mission in Afghanistan.
As many as 783 Romanian soldiers are currently deployed in Afghanistan, in ISAF, the multinational force led by NATO and as part of the operation Enduring Freedom, under American command. Minister of Defence, Teodor Melescanu, stated that the situation in Afghanistan was seriously worsening, particularly in the south, near the Pakistani border, where Romanian troops are also operating.
Romania has another 500 soldiers in Iraq, where a Romanian battalion has taken over part of the missions of the Australian force which withdrew from this country. The 150-strong Romanian force in Kosovo and the 57 servicemen deployed in Bosnia – Herzegovina bring the total number of Romanian troops and experts on international missions to a total of 1,562.
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2025-04-03
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