Bulgarian Afghanistan Contingent on War Footing after Bin Laden Murder

A total of 600 Bulgarian soldiers and medical staff are currently stationed in Afghanistan in Kabul and Kandahar. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian military contingent in Afghanistan has been placed on war footing over increased threats of terrorist attacks in the aftermath of the murder of Osama Bin Laden.

The information was reported Friday by Bulgarian Defense Minister, Anyu Angelov, who spoke for the media after the military parade in Sofia on the occasion of Army Valor Day.

The Minister says there are no tensions in Afghanistan, only "verbal threats of Taliban attacks."

Bin Laden, the al-Qaeda founder and leader, was on the top of the US most wanted list since the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. He was killed Monday by US special forces in northern Pakistan.

According to Angelov, the greatest difficulty for the country's rangers now is the rotation that had just begun because both contingents are in Afghanistan at once.

A total of 600 Bulgarian soldiers and medical staff are currently stationed in Afghanistan in Kabul and Kandahar.

The worst incident with Bulgarian soldiers in Afghanistan to date occurred in January 2010, when four Bulgarians were wounded in a Taliban rocket attack, with one of them subsequently losing his hand. The incident coincided with the visit to the base of then Bulgarian Defense Minister and now Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov.

In 2010, Bulgaria increased its Afghanistan contingent as part of the ISAF/NATO forces to 600 troops; half are stationed at the Kandahar airport.

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