Bulgarian president demands serious US investigation into shooting incident

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on Monday summoned the US ambassador to Sofia demanding the United States carry out a "serious" investigation to determine the responsibility for a US "friendly fire" incident which killed one of the Bulgarian soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Parvanov told US ambassador James Pardew that he expected the United States to carry out a "serious" investigation to determine the responsibility for the incident, saying his country was "conducting a serious investigation into the incident and will demand that those to blame assume their responsibility," accordingto the reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency.

Bulgaria's Defense Minister Nikolay Svinarov said on Monday that the US "friendly fire" was blamed for the death on Friday of Bulgarian machine gunner Gardi Gardev who killed as his unit patrolled some 160 kilometers south of Baghdad.

The president pointed out that this incident revealed the existence of serious problems in coordination and collaborated actions of the coalition forces in Iraq.

Pardew expressed his deepest regret over the death of Gardev while promising to convey the position of the Bulgarian president to the US government and the US military in Iraq.

The ambassador also expressed his hopes that the incident wouldnot affect the friendly ties between the two nations and the solidarity in the international anti-terrorist coalition.

The incident has aroused strong resentment among the Bulgarians.Angry Bulgarians called on the US to explain the circumstances of Gardev's death and some parties even demanded the parliament and government reconsider the Balkan country's military presence in Iraq.

Sofia is expected to decide before March whether it will keep its 450-strong contingent in Iraq until the end of 2005.

In a related development, US troops killed an Italian intelligence agent Friday in Iraq as he was accompanying an Italian journalist, who was freed by her captors, on the way to Baghdad airport. The journalist and two other Italian officials were wounded.

The freed Italian female journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, who suffered shrapnel wounds in the shoulder, said it was possible that they were targeted deliberately because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

Source: Xinhua