Soldier found dead in creek after 5 days

HAKKARİ - Doğan News Agency

A special team comprised of 20 people search the Zap Creek to find the soldier who went missing after a mine blast.DHA Photo

The corpse of Specialist Sgt. Mehmet Çiftçi, who went missing after a land mine blast on Sept. 16 in the southeastern province of Hakkari’s Çukurca district, was found by a Gendarmerie General Command search and rescue team in Zap creek, one kilometer away from the scene of the incident.

A large search party comprised of soldiers, village guards and members from Hakkari’s disaster response team searched the area around the blast zone for five days in an attempt to locate Çiftçi. The initial search efforts, however, only resulted in the discovery of a few parts of the military vehicle, which had been flung into Zap creek by the force of the explosion. The General Staff’s Gendarmerie General Command sent a special team comprised of 20 people to the area today for continued search efforts. They found Çiftçi’s body five days after the blast.

Turkish soldiers were traveling in a military vehicle on the road between the Hakkari city center and the district of Çukurca when the vehicle hit a land mine, killing three and injuring five. Security forces were unable to locate Çiftçi, who was traveling in the military vehicle when the land mine exploded.

Meanwhile, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) organized an attack in Beytüşşebap district’s Bayraktepe base zone on the night of Sept. 19. Upon that, security forces launched an air-backed operation and police began conducting a land search in the region.