TIRANA, Albania – The Albanian army has reported that one of its soldiers was killed at a military base in Latvia during training exercises for a NATO mission in eastern Europe.
Army chief of staff Gen. Bardhyl Kollcaku said on Monday that 32-year-old Cpl. Zarife Hasanaj died of injuries "from the explosion of some unexploded ammunition" at the Adazi base, which became NATO's northern Europe headquarters this year.
An Albanian major and a sergeant were injured during the explosion.
Albania has had small explosives disposal units on six-month rotations at Adazi since 2017.
Albania joined NATO in 2009. It contributes 214 military personnel to NATO and international peacekeeping missions in Latvia, Afghanistan, Kosovo, the Aegean Sea, Mali and South Sudan.