Multinational Division Central-South Invasion (2003) Post-invasion insurgency (2003–2006) Civil war (2006–2008) Insurgency (2008–2011) On January 9, 2005, a 27-man team of Kazakh sappers from the Kazbat engineer battalion collected 35 aerial bombs that Iraqi police had found stashed near the central military base of Al-Suwaira, located 6 miles south of Baghdad.

The bombs were loaded onto transport trucks from where they would be defused at the Al-Suwaira Multinational Division Central-South army base.

[3] At 12:05 a.m, the trucks reached the base and a Ukrainian back-up team from the 72nd mechanized battalion assisted the sappers in unloading the explosives from the transport vehicles.

[6] According to the Ukrainian contingent commander in Iraq, Major General Serhii Popko, there were reports of men sitting in a car and surveying the troops unload the charges before the blast, and then quickly speeding away afterwards.

[7] In reaction to the deaths, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.