TBILISI, DFWatch — A Georgian soldier who has been missing for ten days was found dead in Afghanistan December 29.

Sergeant Giorgi Kikadze is the nineteenth Georgian soldier to lose his life while carrying out his duties as part of the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

December 19, Kikadze was announced missing after he disappeared from the military base at which he was based. It is not publicly known in which province he was serving.

Defense Minister Irakli Alasania Saturday evening announced the loss of another Georgian soldier. He expressed his condolences to the family of the soldier and apologized for giving high hopes of finding their son.

“We all express our condolence to the family. Me and the chair of the Joint Staff today personally visited his mother and apologized, as these days I raised her hope that he would return home unharmed,” Alasania said.

The minister said details of the soldier’s death will not be known until the investigation is finished.


“This makes us more sober. How great responsibility we have to the participants in this mission,” he said. “We need to be more careful to avoid such tragedies.”

The ministry will take all security measures not to let such tragedies happen.

“Our current goal is to bring the body of Giorgi Kikadze home soon,” he said, adding that the formalities are almost finished.

Since the disappearance of the Georgian soldier, the ministry set up a rescue team to find him under ISAF command.