WARSAW (AFP) — One Polish soldier was killed and three others injured when a mine explosion hit their convoy in Iraq, Poland's defence minister said Friday.
Corporal Andrzej Filipek, 31, died in the blast, and one of the three injured was in serious condition, said Defence Minister Aleksander Szczyglo.
The injured were hospitalised at a Polish base near Diwaniyah in southeastern Iraq.
The attack brought to 22 the number of Polish troops killed in the country since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Earlier this month, Poland's ambassador in Iraq, Edward Pietrzyk, was seriously injured and his driver killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
Poland has been among the United States' most loyal allies in Iraq. Some 900 Polish troops remain stationed in the Diwaniyah region.
Poland's Civic Platform party, the winner of the country's recent legislative elections, has pledged to withdraw Polish troops from Iraq.
According to a poll conducted in June, 81 percent of Poles were opposed to their soldiers' mission in Iraq, while 15 percent were in favour.
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