Bulgarian mission in Iraq comes to end

published on 12/27/11 1:21 PM

Photo: EPA/BGNES

On December 27th, 8 years ago the Bulgarian military base in Iraq was attacked as a truck loaded with explosives crashed into the walls of the India base. 5 Bulgarian soldiers died and 27 were injured. On December 21, 2011 the last two Bulgarian soldiers left Iraq, which put an end to the Bulgarian mission in the country.

Bulgarian joined the NATO training mission in 2005, as 25 Bulgarian soldiers participated in the process of creation and development of the new Iraqi security institutions. The end of the Bulgarian mission came as the last US soldiers also left Iraq.
Before 2005, however, the Bulgarian military presence in Iraq was considerable as 5 infantry battalions were located there. In 2003 the Bulgarian contingent was included in the international Center-South division, which had the task to provide the security and help reconstruction of civil facilities in the region of Kerbala. Since 2004 the Bulgarian contingent patrolled major roads and protected important areas. The Bulgarian soldiers also cooperated with the local authorities and organised trainings for the newly formed Iraqi security forces. They helped reconstruction of schools, kindergartens, and hospitals. More than 250 Iraqi people were also trained by the Bulgarian medics located in the country. The end of this large-scale mission came in 2005. Later a contingent of 155 people started participating in a humanitarian mission in the Ashraf Camp. In the period 2003-2008 Bulgaria participated in the international mission with 11 contingents, totaling 3,367 people. 13 Bulgarian soldiers lost their lives during the operation.

The price of the war in Iraq was huge. In the climax of the operation 170,000 soldiers were located in the country and there were 500 military bases. 4,500 US soldiers died and more than 100,000 Iraqis were killed. Just a week after the withdrawal of the US troops explosions in Baghdad caused a political crisis and demands for new elections. The Shiite government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to reach a difficult agreement for separating the power between Shiites, Sunnites and Kurds. The events from the past days raised the question if the high price of the war was worth paying. Only time will show.

English: Alexander Markov

По публикацията работи: Stoimen Pavlov

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Bulgarian mission in Iraq comes to end

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