The Minister of Defence decorates soldiers who fought off an attack in Mali.

The decorated soldiers together with the Minister

The Minister gives a soldier his decoration

Reviewing the soldiers after the Minister’s arrival

The Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, awarded soldiers Dávalos and Gómez the Military Merit Cross with red distinction for their intervention which neutralised a terrorist attack against the Koulikoro base in Mali at the end of February.

The Minister of Defence also gave the Military Merit Cross with blue distinction to the Warrant officer class 2 Néstor and Staff sergeant Varela, who were responsible for deactivating the explosives which the terrorists had put in place and for securing the area. She also gave the Military Merit Cross with white distinction to Captain Matilla and Sergeant Patiño, who were on duty in the early hours of the morning when the attack took place and took part in the operation.

The awards ceremony took place in the ‘General Morillo’ base in Figueirido (Pontevedra), seat of the Headquarters of the 7th ‘Galicia’ Brigade, the unit which contributed the majority of soldiers – specifically from the 29th ‘Isabel the Catholic’ Infantry Regiment – to the rotation to which the decorated soldiers belonged.

“Making a decision in such a difficult context shows the extremely high training of our Armed Forces, which are always a source of pride when they participate in peace missions. Thanks to them, there was no massacre in Koulikoro,” emphasised Robles, who added that interventions such as that in Mali, highlight “the professionalism, generosity and training” of the Spanish Armed Forces.

Impeccable reaction

Soldiers Dávalos and Gómez were providing security in the access area of the Koulikoro base in the early hours of the 24th of February, as part of the Protection Force led by the Spanish Army, which also included Marines and Czech soldiers.

They were the first to face a complex attack in two phases which was set off at 3am. The first action started when the terrorists tried to blow up a truck in the main entrance to the facilities and were neutralised by the Lynx vehicle’s machine gun, which was there to provide protection.

After the quick reaction of the Spanish soldiers, a second vehicle, which was planned to have accessed the camp in order to explode there and harm more people, exploded outside and injured two Malian soldiers who were quickly attended to by medical services. The attack was accompanied by rifle fire, which continued until after 4am, when the incident was brought under control.

Authorities present at the ceremony/p>

During the ceremony, the Minister was accompanied by the Secretary of State for Defence, Ángel Olivares; the Sub-secretary of that Department, Alejo de la Torre; the delegate from the Galician Government, Francisco Javier Losada; the Vice-president of the Xunta (Galician autonomous government), Alfonso Rueda; the Lieutenant General of the Land Forces, Juan Gómez de Salazar; and the Chief of the 7th ‘Galician’ Brigade, General Antonio Romero, as well as other civil and military authorities.