Major Klodian Tanushaj died in a hospital in Riga yesterday, four days after he was wounded in a mine explosion in a NATO base in Latvia.
Second lieutenant Zarife Hasanaj was killed on the spot on Monday and Sergeant Julian Kapaj was also wounded in the same accident.
The explosion occurred while the group was dismantling mines following a military exercise in the base by a NATO member country.
Zarife Hasanaj’s body was repatriated two days ago. The government proclaimed an official day of mourning in her honor on May 10. Hasanaj was laid to rest yesterday following a military funeral.
The Albanian government has not clarified the circumstances of the accident.
Albanian military staff are part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) – a defense and deterrence military presence in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Albanian soldiers are located in Latvia. The EFP was agreed in the 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw after Russia had occupied Crimea and made several military incursions into Ukraine.
The current Latvia presence is led by Canada and it includes armies of Albania, Czech Republic, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
Klodian Tanushaj, 39, is the third soldier dying while on a NATO mission. Zarife Hasanaj, 32, was killed in the same mine explosion four days ago, and Captain Feti Vogli, 31, was killed in an attack by gunmen in Afghanistan in 2012.
