TBILISI, June 8 (RIA NOVOSTI) - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Saturday that he has appealed NATO asking to investigate an online footage calling for violence against Georgian soldiers in Afghanistan.
The video threatening punishment against Georgian troops in Afghanistan appeared on the YouTube video sharing web site a day before a bombing attack killed at least seven and injured nine other Georgian militaries of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) on Thursday. The Taliban, leading the insurgency in Afghanistan, claimed the attack on their "Voice of Jihad" web site.
“I have already addressed our foreign colleagues with a letter to NATO’s secretary general and met with the US ambassador asking the FBI to join the probe and help … identify who made it [video] and who ordered it,” Saakhashvili said on Saturday.
A rally of dozens of people mourning the killed soldiers was held outside the Georgian government building in Tbilisi on Saturday. The demonstrators called for an early withdrawal of Georgia’s forces from Afghanistan.
Georgian troops have been in Afghanistan since 2004, a commitment that underscores ex-Soviet state's ambition to join NATO. The ISAF’s troop’s withdrawal is set to be accomplished in 2014.
