Czech soldiers in Afghanistan commemorate last year's fallen

ČTK

lep

Czech soldiers in Afghanistan commemorated last year's three fallen comrades by marching across the NATO Bagram Base yesterday joined by representatives of all other allied units active at the base, Czech military wrote on its website.

The three Czech soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber near Bagram on August 5, 2018.

The march led through the Bagram base and was symbolically concluded in front of the portraits of the three fallen soldiers, Martin Marcin, Kamil Benes and Patrik Stepanek.

The press and information officer of the 12th Czech Armed Forces Guard Company at Bagram, Kristyna Pesatova, added that after the conclusion of the march, the company's chaplain read a letter sent to the Czech soldiers at the base by Patrik Stepanek's mother.

Marcin, Benes and Stepanek, when conducting a routine patrol roughly nine kilometers from the Bagram base, encountered the suicide bomber after leaving their vehicle and continuing on foot through difficult terrain.

They were accompanied by one American and two Afghan soldiers. The three Czech soldiers died in the explosion. Czech President Milos Zeman decorated all three with a Medal of Heroism in memoriam on October 28, 2018.

To date, 14 Czech soldiers died in Afghanistan. A memorial in their honour was revealed at the Kabul base by soldiers from the 18th Czech Armed Forces Task Force earlier this year.

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