CHISINAU. Nov 18 (Interfax-AVN) - A Moldovan serviceman got a gunshot wound while rebuffing an extremist attack on a patrol team in Iraq, the press service of the Moldovan Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
"A group of Moldovan servicemen accomplishing a patrol mission was ambushed in Iraq. Corporal Vyacheslav Lipciu was wounded in a leg during the engagement with extremists," a press service official told Interfax-Military News Agency.
Having received first medical aid, the wounded serviceman was taken to a peacekeeping base and later airlifted to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
According to the press service, local residents helped peacekeepers detain a local who is suspected of arranging the attack.
The Moldovan parliament and Supreme Security Council decided to send Moldovan servicemen to Iraq following a request from the U.S. The 42-strong Moldovan contingent flew to Baghdad on September 8.
Under accords, the U.S. covers the costs of the contingent's transportation, accommodation and alimentation. The Moldovan government only pays subsistence allowances to servicemen.
The government has issued a resolution setting a daily allowance of participants in the peacekeeping operation in Iraq at USD20 for senior officers, USD15 for junior officers and USD10 for other servicemen.
It is the first peacekeeping operation outside Moldova that involves Moldovan servicemen since the country proclaimed independence, the press service stressed.