Tragedy in Afghanistan - He Died on his Name Day

A Romanian soldier died on Sunday afternoon in Afghanistan, and other two were injured, after the TAB they were in stepped on an unidentified explosive object.

Abdul Latif Hakim, one of the Talibans’ spokespersons, claimed the attack on Sunday night and stated for AFP that the explosion of the device placed on the road where the Romanian convoy was passing had been remote controlled. Sergeant Narcis Sonei has been promoted post mortem to sub-lieutenant, at the proposal of the National Defense Minister, and was proposed for receiving a decoration from Romania’s President.

THE DISASTER. The soldiers of the 30th "Saint Andrew" Battalion from Galati, transferred to Iraq, were patrolling the Panjawyi district, in the Kandahar Province. After the explosions, Sergeant Narcis Sonei, one of the seven soldiers in the TAB, died instantly. Other two soldiers, Sergeant Gabriel Hanganu and Sergeant Adrian Dogaru, have been injured.

Lieutenant Cindy Moore, spokesperson of the coalition in Afghanistan, stated for AFP she didn’t know whether the tragedy was truly caused by a mine or by an improvised device, put in front of the TABS. Theoretically, a mine cannot cause such damage to a TAB, the military specialists say.

THE HERO FROM GALATI. On Sunday evening, at about 8 o’clock, Maria and Victor Sonei, the parents of the soldier who died in Afghanistan, have been announced that their child had died. The Sergeant left in December 2004 and was three months away from the end of his mission in Afghanistan.

"We were expecting a phone call from him, because it was his name day and he had promised he would call to tell us how he was doing. He was such a good child and he liked the army. The last time we spoke to him on the phone it was two weeks ago", told us, between her tears, Maria Sonei, the young sergeant’s mother.

The Sergeant’s father, Victor Sonei, worked in the army for 35 years. He says he asked him not to go in Afghanistan. "I insisted for him not to go, but he didn’t listen to me. He died for a cause that is not Romania’s", Victor Sonei said. The sergeant was living in Buzau since one year ago, and, there, he was an employee of the parachutists’ battalion. The 25-year-old young man wasn’t married and liked parachutism and mountain climbing. The family’s wish is that the soldier would be buried in Tecuci. The Prefect of the Galati district, Mihai Capra, stated that he would financially support the soldier’s family for the burial.

THE WOUNDED IN FOCSANI. Gabriel Cristian Hanganu from Focsani is born in 1981 and is unmarried. He is taking part in his first mission in an external operations’ theatre. The young sergeant’s parents work in Focsani, for the Ministry of the National Defense. Gabriel Hanganu joined the army in 2000 and, in the meantime, he graduated from a non-commissioned officers’ academy. He was in Afghanistan since January this year. "I couldn’t talk to him after the explosion. I only spoke to his superiors. I understood from the military officials that he is in a hospital in Germany", the non-commissioned officer’s father told us.