 Time -- The death of a Polish soldier in the southern city of Diwaniyah Friday was a reminder that militants will still find ways to strike — and that Americans aren't their only targets.
Senior Cpl. Andrzej Filipek, a 31-year-old father of two who was just beginning his third tour with the Polish force in Southern Iraq, was killed by a powerful roadside bomb Friday morning near a joint Iraqi-Polish outpost in this tumultuous city deep in Iraq's Shi'ite heartland.
He was the 22nd Polish soldier to die in Iraq since the autumn of 2003, when Poland first sent troops into the country. He was the first Pole killed in action in more than six months and his death comes at a delicate time for a newly elected Polish government, which is under intense domestic pressure to pull out all its people of Iraq by next year.
After the British force, which recently pulled out of Basra, the 900-strong Polish unit is the largest international contingent serving with the U.S. in Iraq.
"The Poles have been serving down here on a year-by-year basis, and some in the new government aren't too sure they want to stick around," said Army Col. Dave Leckrone, the senior American commander in southern Iraq. "Things like today's attack don't make things any easier.
Things like the ambassador getting attacked don't make it any easier, either," he said, referring to the recent ambush of the Polish ambassador's motorcade in Baghdad, which killed a member of his security detail and wounded the ambassador and three others. Military officials said they believed that attack was the work of a Shi'ite militant group known as the Battalions of Hussein, a splinter group of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army.
The same group made life difficult for British Forces in Basra and has recently shown up in Diwaniyah, claiming responsibility for mortar and rocket attacks and dropping leaflets in neighborhoods surrounding two joint Polish-Iraqi outposts, warning residents to flee coming attacks.
Polish commanders say more aggressive patrolling, targeted raids and more robust civil affair missions and infrastructure projects have dented the militants' ability to mount such attacks in recent months, but Diwaniyah is still a dangerous place for foreign troops.
During an emotional Catholic Mass Friday night after Cpl. Filipek's death, Maj. Gen. Tadeusz Buk, the commander of all Polish forces in Iraq, called for the Coalition troops in Diwaniyah to rally together in their time of grief. "Please, let me ask you to get even more united, even more strong, so that this sacrifice is not a waste," he said to a crowd of about 75 stern-faced soldiers packed into a tiny chapel heavy with the weight of the day. "We need to proceed in the memory of our great hero," he said. |
I would like to say thank you for your service and sacrifice for Poland. And to your family and loved ones, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy. the United States is lucky to have an ally such as your Country in it's time of need.
A grateful American