by Vessela Sergueva
SOFIA - Bulgaria joined Italy on Monday in seeking answers from Washington after one of its soldiers was shot dead in a US "friendly fire" incident in Iraq, on the same day US forces killed an Italian secret agent rescuing a hostage in the country.
President Georgi Parvanov told the US ambassador to Sofia, James Pardew, that Bulgaria was "conducting a serious investigation of the incident and will demand that those to blame assume their responsibility."
Parvanov said he also expected the United States to carry out a "serious" investigation to determine reponsibility for the incident, his office said.
Bulgaria's Defence Minister Nikolay Svinarov said on Monday that US friendly fire was to blame for the death on Friday of a Bulgarian machinegunner, killed as his unit patrolled some 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad.
"The information we have allows us to say with reasonable certainty that soldier Gardi Gardev was killed by friendly fire," Svinarov said, confirming an anonymous claim posted on a Bulgarian army website earlier on Monday.
The revelation came as Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, also the victim of a deadly mistake by US forces, was buried with full military honors in a state funeral in Italy.
Calipari died in a hail of gunfire on Friday when a US patrol near Baghdad opened fire on the convoy whisking him and a rescued hostage to safety.
Like Bulgaria, Italy is seeking explanations from Washington, as the shooting incidents rekindle debate in both states over when to withdraw their military contingents from the country.
Italy currently has 3,000 troops in Iraq, while Bulgarian military forces there number 450.
Bulgaria's opposition Union of Democratic Forces called for the US commandment to explain the circumstances of Gardev's death, which brings to eight the number of Bulgarian soldiers killed in Iraq.
Ivo Atanassov, of the leading opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), meanwhile said Sofia should consider withdrawing its forces from Iraq and should not send a 450-strong replacement contingent in June.
The BSP, which is leading opinion polls ahead of June general elections, has vowed to pull Bulgarian troops out if Iraq if it comes to power.
Sofia is expected to decide before March whether it will keep its 450-strong contingent in Iraq until the end of 2005.
The defence minister had said on Sunday that it would be inappropriate to end the soldiers' mandate at this point.
Army chief of staff General Nikola Kolev, also said Sunday that Bulgaria's military presence in Iraq should be maintained until the end of the year, while saying it should be gradually reduced.
News of the friendly fire incident coincided with the opening of a probe into the death of another Bulgarian soldier in Iraq, who was killed on December 27, 2003 in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
Eighteen troops, including five Bulgarians, were killed and over 200 others wounded in four near-simultaneous attacks by explosive-loaded vehicles.
The lawyer for one of the soldiers, Raichin Pramov, accused the Bulgarian defence ministry Monday on national radio of failing to provide the necessary protection for the Bulgarian base at Karbala.
03/07/2005 14:00 GMT