Tbilisi. 155 military servicemen, the personnel of 42nd
Battalion of IV Infantry Brigade performing the peacekeeping mission in
Afghanistan for six months, have returned from Afghanistan to Georgia - Georgian
Ministry of Defence (MoD) reported on Wednesday, October 16.
According to the Georgian MoD, Minister of
Defence, Irakli Alasania, greeted the
soldiers at the airport and congratulated them on peaceful return to the
motherland:
"I would like to mention with pride
that they are highly professional warriors protecting both international and
Georgia`s security. I wish them great success," Georgian Defence Minister
said when addressing the servicemen.
Chief of the Joint Staff of Georgian Armed
Forces (JS GAF) Col. Irakli Dzneladze, first Deputy Chief of the JS
Brigadier-General Vakhtang Kapanadze, Head of IV Infantry Brigade COL Zaza
Leladze, other JS officers and the family members of the soldiers also greeted
the Georgian contingent.
Corporal Giorgi Chaduneli was met by his
wife and a three-week-old baby at the airport. He learnt about the birth of the
child only after return to the motherland. The pupils and teachers of Rustavi #
2 Public School also came to the airport to welcome their arrival to Georgia.
The military servicemen, in their turn, presented the School with a Georgian
Flag. According to a rotation plan, 42nd Battalion will completely come back to
Georgia till the end of this week. Batumi Separate Light Infantry Battalion
replaced the personnel of IV Brigade.
Georgian peacekeeping contingent has been
deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led ISAF (international Security
Assistance Force) mission since August 2009. 29 Georgian military servicemen
have been killed in Afghanistan since that time. According to the Georgian MoD,
over 1,5 thousand Georgian servicemen are serving in Afghanistan. Rotation of
the Georgian servicemen in Afghanistan is carried out once in six months.