Seven Ukrainian soldiers have died in Iraq after an accidental explosion, Ukraine's defence ministry said Sunday. A spokesman confirmed to AFP an earlier report on Polish public radio about the death of the seven troops, part of a 1,600-strong contingent that serve under Polish control in Iraq's central Wasit region. The ministry will release details of the accident later on Sunday, Andrei Lysenko told AFP.
Interfax in Kiev said the accident happened when a bomb being handled by the soldiers accidentally went off. In Warsaw a Polish military official said the seven Ukrainian soldiers and a Kazakh died as they were trying to deactivate a bomb.
Seven Ukrainians and four Kazakhs were injured in the accident which happened near the central military base of As Suwayrah.
"An aerial bomb found during mine-clearing operations in the area exploded accidentally when the soldiers were about to make it safe," Polish military spokesman Colonel Zdzieslaw Gnatowski told AFP.
The wounded soldiers were rushed to a hospital in Baghdad.
On the orders of the Polish commander of the multinational division of which the Ukrainians and Kazakhs are members, General Andrzej Ekiert, the mine-clearing operation was halted to investigate the exact causes of the incident, Colonel Gnatowski said.
Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and Polish chief of staff General Czeslaw Piatas expressed their sympathy to the families of the victims.
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