Family Distressed After Wrong Body Returned [View All]

[kpete]

April 27th, 2006 1:52 am
Family Distressed After Wrong Body Returned


By Meraiah Foley / Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia - The grieving relatives of an Australian soldier killed in Iraq were distressed to learn that the wrong body accidentally was sent home, the defense minister said Thursday.

Pvt. Jacob Kovco, 25, died in a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad last week after he was accidentally shot inside the city's secure green zone, military officials said.

He was the second soldier with Australian citizenship to die in Iraq since the U.S.-led war began in 2003, but he was the Australian military's first.

Kovco was due to be buried near the southern city of Melbourne with full military honors, but the casket that arrived Thursday in Australia contained the wrong body, the Defense Department said in a statement.

Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said he and Australian Army Chief Lt. Gen. Peter Leahy flew to Kovco's hometown in southeastern Victoria state to tell the soldier's family about the mistake.

"Needless to say the Kovco family were quite distressed," Nelson told reporters.

more at:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6655