According to a statement by the Georgian Defense Ministry, the young trooper, named corporal ‘Givi Patsulaia,’ died in a military hospital in the eastern Georgia city of Gori on Saturday.
Patsulaia had been struck in a mortar shell explosion in the Helmad province back in January 2012.
While in coma, he was sent to the United States and Germany for treatment and then brought back to Georgia.
Patsulaia’s death brings the total number of the Georgian fatalities, caused by the US-led war in Afghanistan to 17.
Tbilisi is an ally of Washington and has actively taken part in the US-led war on Afghanistan.
In December 2011, Georgia’s parliament voted in favor of deployment of another battalion to Afghanistan to reinforce the US contingents in the country.
The ratification of further deployment is expected to double the size of the country’s Afghanistan-based contingent.
The pro-Western Georgian government has long been applying for membership in the NATO in a move infuriating Russia, which sees the Western military alliance’s eastward expansion policy as a threat to its national and regional interests.
MY/HN
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