Şırnak crash kills 9 soldiers, one guard

ŞIRNAK - Hürriyet Daily News

A woman runs in a sorrow to a soldier who was killed in a crash along with eight other companions and a guard in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s Uludere district. Emin BAL, DHA photo

Nine Turkish soldiers and a village guard were killed yesterday when their minibus crashed into a ditch in the southeastern province of Şırnak.

The village guard, who was identified as Mehdi Tosun, was driving the soldiers when he lost control on a curve near Gülyazı district in the province’s Uludere district, rolling into the ditch. Nearby villagers rushed to extract the badly injured soldiers and take them to hospital, but nine of them, as well as the driver, could not be saved.

Four other soldiers, as well as the son of the driver, were injured in the accident, Şırnak Gov. Vahdettin Özkan said. The villagers who came to the soldiers’ assistance first took them to Gülyazı’s Primary Heath Care center, which is 500 meters from the scene of the crash. After receiving first aid there, they were taken to state and military hospitals in Şırnak via helicopter.

The soldiers were on a reported mission to protect independent deputy Ahmet Türk, who was paying a visit to the relatives of the victims of an air raid by Turkish Air Forces last December in Uludere that killed 34 civilians, a Doğan news agency reporter on the scene of the accident said.

The military had bombed the civilians, who were allegedly smuggling goods from Iraq into Turkey, on the supposition that they were militants. It was reported that the accident occurred as villagers were awaiting Türk’s entry into the village and that they rushed to help the soldiers when they witnessed the crash