Albanians in Iraq (thanks Deuterium)

[Tom The Hunter]

I didn't know that Albania has a contigent in Iraq.
With the permition of Deuterium, I publish some images and a comment.

I'm not certain of their numbers in the entire country. OPSEC keeps me from saying their numbers where I was. The unit was a good unit. They had good intermediate leadership, the PLT LDRs and the junior NCOs. The overall leaders I got the impression that they were hand selected for the mission. The overall commander of the Commando unit was a SIGNAL Officer related to Sec Def of Albania. Hmmm... Good guy though. The Albanians took a few casualties while I was there but morale was always high. Their equipment was OLD but well maintained. They did have good vehicles. They kicked our ass frequently in Soccer. I'd work with them again.

The last pic is of me and the gang.

http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/alb1.jpg

http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/alb2.jpg

http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/alb3.jpg

http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/alb4.jpg

http://www.deuteriumox.com/milphotos/alb5.jpg

[KML]

Great pics and god bless

[anonymous individual]

Great pics

[aartamen]

See what happens when you help people (Kosovo). On the other hand we pissed off a whole bunch of others.

[Poontang_Dan]

Tom, thanks for the nice pics. The number of Albanians going to Iraq sure as wasn't a secret back in 2003 when the first albanian recon commando platoon went to Iraq. It was openly published in the albanian press as it was big news. Among details some of the equipment and organizational diagrams were public.

Dunno, maybe it's gone superduper secret commando after the 10th SFG, 350th SOG and the ST 2 gave the albanians a comprehensive familiarization in for the upcoming aor.

I did try to find a link for you but no such luck this time. After all, I saw the news like a year and half ago before my own deployment.

[Roger Rabbit]

So were US SF working with the Albanian troops in Iraq?

[Pandy]

I've heard lots of good things coming from Albanian troops. I bet you money there is a lot of US SF working with our friends in Iraq. Most likely they got a big enough force to assist the united states there.

[Helios X]

The equipment look good for an army from a poor nation.

[dghost]

badass pics. thanks for sharing them :)

[haze99]

yea, Yahoo had some photos of their deployment back in March of this year. (Just a couple) It did mention them being a commando unit. Always send your best!

Yep, most of their gear and weapons are of PRC origin. Remember? Albanian aligned itself with Bejing from 1960-1980.

P.S.-Hence why the KLA in Kosovo had alot of PRC weapons.

[Lance Corporal]

OT:
Ahhaha, Your avatar is great.. I don't know if it's the hangover or what, but it just made me laugh like hell here.. :lol:

[Upfrontreporting]

See what happens when you help people (Kosovo). On the other hand we pissed off a whole bunch of others.


Those soldiers are from the country called Albania, not the internationally "governed" zone called Kosovo. Same etcnicity, I'll give you that but Albania and Kosovo are not the same (although there are a hell of a lot of dispute about that in the region ;) )



regards

[Deuterium]

Here I'll spill some blood. My unit rotated in to an area that the Albanians patrolled sometime before the 101st rotated out. The Albanians were doing close patrols around the base. We were getting daily mortar and rocket attacks from the insurgents. The 101st was concerned with one thing, going home. They had assigned the 101st LRS-D unit to go with the Albanians on patrols. At some point the LRS-D went home leaving the Albanians without a patrol partner. Not being a NATO partner they didn't have radios to call CAS or CASEVAC, and they had been previously fired up (no casualties) by a US chopper. The Albanians, rightly so decided they wouldn't patrol without American escorts(in the form of an RTO). At this particular base the only combat troops were us SF guys. We had other missions but seeing as the Albanians would only patrol with a US escort we picked up this mission. It was either this or the area around the base wouldn't be patrolled.

[ShotOver]

How were their casualties with the US chopper?

[Deuterium]

They didn't take any casualties, the escorts called an immediate cease-fire. Well maybe there was some damage to a few pair of pants. Friendly Fire can potentially happen quite frequently. Only in Hollywood do things always go as planned. The first night I was on Patrol with the Albanians (vehicle patrol) we were making runs back and forth from the perimeter wire out about 2Ks. As we worked our way around the base each guard tower would report our movements. I was monitoring their internal freq. Well tower ## calls in saying he sees vehicular movement, "their coming closer, their coming closer permission to fire!" Luckily I had good SA and I knew that he was talking about my patrol. Well I had choice words to say to this guy over the radio. This happened more than once during my rotation. We had a planned patrol, in a known area, the guard towers were briefed on our patrols, we drove or walked in known vehicles and uniforms, and yet we were not correctly identified more than once. That's the nature of the game. Thanks to good comms, good SA, and a good SOTG we were never actually engaged.

[ShotOver]

Yeah, blue on blues seem to happen alot down in the sandbox, heard alot of stories.
Your fulltime arnt ya? not NG like Shrek.

[DPGLAW]

I believe that the number of Albanian troops is not even a semblence of a secret. On Globalsecurity.org, I believe if I remember correctly, they give a breakdown of the coalition of the willing showing how many troops each respective country committed..I'll try to find the link for eveyone....I'm not trying to start a flame war AT ALL with this, just want to point this info. out

[Tom The Hunter]

three of these soldiers were wounded last days.

[seruriermarshal]

Great Albanians !

woot

[Zapp Brannigan]

The Ministry of Defense updated the website describing the deployment a few months back. This English translation only carries it through the end of last year: http://www.mod.gov.al/eng/misione/irak.asp.

This bulletin from April 2004 notes the deployment of the third contingent: "The third Albanian peacekeeping contingent takes-off to Iraq" (http://www.mod.gov.al/eng/buletini/buletin_lajm.asp?IDNews=797)).

Here is a 28 July press release (http://www.mod.gov.al/eng/lajme/lexo_lajm.asp?IDNews=697) from the Ministry of Defense on the wounded Albanians:
PRESS RELEASE

Tirana, 27 July 2004 - Today at 16.30, one of the Albanian commando troopsvehicles operating in Iraq hit a mine. Four military members of the patrolling team, three Albanians and one American, suffered minor injuries. The injuries were not critical and there is no threat to their lives.

The injured Albanian commandos are Sgt Egert Çela, 21 years old, from Skrapari, Sgt Elton Abazllari, from Pogradeci, 25 years old and private Dashamir Gjyla, 19 years old, from Tirana.

The incident happened 7 kilometers away from the deployment site of Albanian forces in Mosul airport, while our troops were conducting their patrol duty.

The four injured soldiers have received immediate medical assistance at the location of the incident and will be transferred later on to the military hospital in Mosul.

Sgt Eger Cela and the U.S military member of the patrolling team are still under medical observation. Sgt Elton Abazllari and private Dashamir Gjyla are being sent back to their deployment sight.

The Ministry of Defense is in constant contact with our troops deployed in Iraq. Meanwhile, measures were taken to communicate with Albanian military members families.

Reports indicate that the troops have high morale and they continue to conduct their duties in accordance with the assigned mission.