Slovak Spectator -- A SLOVAK soldier was one of four casualties caused by the explosion of an improvised explosive device (IED) used to attack a convoy of coalition forces in Iraq during the night from Friday to Saturday in the city of Al Qut.

Private Rastislav Neplech from Zilina was serving in the Slovak peacekeeping mission stationed in Al Hillah at the time. The explosion also killed a Polish soldier and seriously wounded another Pole as well as an Armenian soldier. The wounded soldiers are now in hospital in Baghdad. The convoy was made up of 20 vehicles, ten of which were Slovak Army vehicles, four of which were US and six of which were from Salvadorian forces.

The explosion hit the third vehicle in the convoy after it passed through an intersection on a narrow street in a built-up area of the city, the SITA news agency wrote.

SlavakSpectator - THREE Slovak soldiers were killed in Iraq by an explosion on June 8, becoming the first casualties sustained by the Slovak contingent of the multinational division.

"[Before this] we had not had any wounded, nothing. This was the first," Anton Filo, the spokesman of the 105-strong unit, told the news wire TASR.

He was not able to confirm the exact cause of death, and added that, "there are different versions."

Three Slovak army engineers - Peter Dinga, Vladimir Simonides, and Miroslav Frkan - were among six soldiers killed when a Polish vehicle containing explosives for de-mining operations blew up accidentally, Slovakia's Defence Minister Juraj Liška confirmed earlier in the day.