Twenty years after his tragic death, officer candidate Dimitar Dimitrov from Gorna Oryahovitsa, who died in Karbala, was awarded posthumously. By special order of the Minister of Defense, he received the Badge for victims of a military conflict, second degree – for dead. The award was presented to Dimitrov’s mother during the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of his death, which took place on Tuesday in front of the memorial plaque in the center of the railway town. In addition to Dimitrov, Ivan Dyulgerov, a translator in the Bulgarian military contingent, also received the Badge for casualties, but first degree – for the wounded.
A guard company from the National Military University “Vasil Levski” – Veliko Tarnovo took part in the solemn military ritual. At the beginning of the commemoration, a condolence address was read from the President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev to the relatives of officer candidate Dimitar Dimitrov. “He gave his life for a noble cause and for the defense of the motherland. Before he was wounded, he demonstrated courage and high morale by helping his colleagues. The wound he left in our hearts is incurable. He contributed to raising the high glory of the Bulgarian armed forces”, says the condolence address of the head of state. In a heartfelt speech, the mayor of Gorna Oryahovitsa Municipality Nikolay Rashkov noted: “When a soldier dies, it is an irreparable loss for the fatherland. Officer candidate Dimitar Dimitrov died as a true hero while fulfilling his military duty for the honor and glory of the Bulgarian arms. Today, we report his irreconcilable loss with pride and sadness. Honor and glory to the hero! Respect!”
During the military ritual, a letter of thanks was also read, sent by the commander of the Ground Forces of the Bulgarian Army, Major General Deyan Deshkov, to the participants of the Second Infantry Battalion and the initiators and organizers of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in Karbala and the death of officer candidate Dimitar Dimitrov. “You have worthily defended the honor of the Bulgarian soldier,” addressed the letter to the former Rangers Generalcj.
The commemoration of the sad anniversary ended with kneeling and a minute’s silence to the sounds of the military band and the laying of wreaths and flowers in front of the hero’s memorial plaque. Among those who came to lay a flower and bow before the memory of the fallen ranger were his former colleagues from the Second Infantry Battalion, as well as Bulgarian rangers who took part in other peacekeeping missions of the Bulgarian professional military formations abroad.
Officer candidate Dimitar Dimitrov was born on April 25, 1978 in Polski Trumbesh. He studied at the George Izmirliev Middle Sergeant School in Gorna Oryahovitsa. He graduated from the Center for the Training of Cadre Military in Veliko Tarnovo, majoring in “Communication Troops”. He was appointed sergeant in the Bulgarian army in 1999, and the following year he was promoted to the rank of senior sergeant. On March 30, 2004, he left for Iraq as part of the last group in the composition of the Second Bulgarian Infantry Battalion, whose mission was to carry out a peacekeeping mission during the civil war and the unrest in Saddam Hussein’s country. On April 23, 2004, a group of Bulgarian military servicemen, among whom was officer candidate Dimitrov, was ambushed while returning from a task of guarding the town hall in the city of Karbala. The group is moving as part of a large motorcade, in which there are also Lithuanian, Latvian and Polish soldiers. According to initial information, the truck they were traveling in activated a mine placed on the road. Later it became clear that they were fired upon with automatic weapons and grenade launchers. The truck was hit, but the Bulgarian soldiers did not lose their composure and returned fire. In the ensuing fierce shootout, officer candidate Dimitar Dimitrov was wounded in the head. By a ridiculous coincidence, the bullet fired by the enemy managed to pass through the narrow unprotected space between his bulletproof vest and helmet. The injured man was treated at the scene and transported to Base Juliet. However, the wound turned out to be extremely serious, and this necessitated that he be transported by helicopter to the Military Field Hospital in Baghdad, where, despite the efforts of the doctors to save him, the Bulgarian died. Posthumously, Senior Sergeant Dimitrov was promoted to the rank of officer candidate. The 26-year-old man never managed to start a family.
Dimitar Dimitrov is the sixth and fortunately the last victim of a Bulgarian Ranger in Iraq. Five months earlier, on December 27, 2023, again in Karbala, five Bulgarians died after a tanker truck driven by a kamikaze terrorist crashed into the enclosures of the Bulgarian military base “India” and exploded and caught fire. The cruel tragedy was then called “Bloody Christmas” and caused a fierce debate in Bulgarian society whether Bulgarian professional soldiers should be sent to risk their lives and health for causes that have nothing to do with the national security of our country.
Ivan GEORGIEV
