IDF soldier killed after tank flips during exercise
Latest in a string of serious accidents
By ANNA AHRONHEIMUpdated: NOVEMBER 24, 2016 23:42IDF Armored Corps soldiers train on the Golan Heights(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
A 20-year-old IDF soldier was killed when his tank overturned during an exercise on the Golan Heights shortly after midnight Wednesday, the IDF announced on Thursday morning.The accident victim was Sgt. Ido Ben- Ari from Ramat Sharon, a tank commander in the 9th Battalion of the Armored Corps’ 401 Brigade. He was posthumously promoted to staff-sergeant.Three other soldiers suffered minor injuries in the incident and were discharged from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa after receiving medical treatment.Ben-Ari’s tank brigade was taking part in a wide-scale training exercise along with the Givati Brigade and its engineering forces when the accident occurred at around 1 a.m. on Mount Shifon on the northern Golan Heights.Ben-Ari’s Merkava Mark IV flipped over, trapping Ben-Ari under it. He was extracted but later succumbed to his injuries.OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen.Eyal Zamir appointed a team of experts to investigate the incident.The IDF extended its condolences to Ben-Ari’s family and promised to support them in their grief. His funeral will take place on 10 a.m. on Thursday at the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery.This accident is the latest in a number of mishaps in the past few months.Two soldiers were killed and three others injured by an accidental grenade explosion in the Har Dov region of northern Israel in July. A month later, seven soldiers were injured, one severely, in a crash between a D9 bulldozer and an armored personnel carrier in the same region. In late September, an Armored Corps soldier was seriously injured in an exercise at the Shizafon Army Base in the Negev desert after he was struck in the head by a tank turret.