Spanish soldier killed in massive explosion

John Felipe Romero Meneses

A Spanish soldier was killed in Afghanistan 1st February when a bomb exploded under the armoured personnel carrier he was travelling in.

21 year old John Felipe Romero Meneses was travelling as part of an 11-vehicle convoy in Sang Atesh when a “very large explosive device” went off underneath his Pegaso BMR, destroying the vehicle completely. The explosion wounded six others, two of whom are reported to be serious.

Immediately after the explosion, soldiers were forced to defend themselves against an ambush by Taliban forces. In the subsequent firefight, Spanish soldiers killed three Talibans and seized a “large quantity of arms and ammunition.”

Spain’s Ministry of Defence thinks the bomb was specially modified to augment its destructive power and was triggered by the weight of the vehicle passing over it.

Sr Romero Meneses was Columbian and had been in Afghanistan for two months.