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By Ashraf Abdul-Wahab.
Tripoli, 3 April 2104:
Three bodies have been found near Sirte which security forces think may . . .[restrict]be those of the remaining three officers who were on the Air Force helicopter that disappeared after taking off from Sidra on 12 February.
According to the commander of Infantry Battalion No. 136, Ali Sadiq, the three decomposed bodies were found buried some 17 kilometres west of the Sirte near to the old coast road. After being informed, a team consisting of brigade members, the local police and a representative of civil society in Sirte went to inspect the site.
Sadiq said it has now been secured with the bodies untouched. Specialists were expected to investigate and remove them to Ibn Sina hospital in Sirte where DNA testing could be done to establish the the dead men’s identities.
Privately, members of the unit have said that they believe the bodies may be those of the remaining three members of the team aboard the missing helicopter.
The body of one of the pilots, Air Force Lieutenant Hamdi Abdulkhalek Al-Drisi was found buried at Umm Ghrainiq near Brega on 23 March and reburied last Saturday in his village of Batta, east of Marj.
Another body, said to be that of fellow pilot, Air Force Lieutenant Saleh Al-Gadrani, was found five days ago, also west of Sirte, not far from where the latest discovery was made.
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