Cyprus-Forum.com

[oranos64]

Green Line sentries disarmed by knife-wielding attacker
By John Leonidou

THE DEFENCE Ministry has played down an incident in which on-duty soldiers on the Green Line were robbed of their assault rifles and ammunition at knife point.

Yesterday, a 42-year-old man, who managed to steal two guns and ammo from soldiers at a guard post after threatening them with a knife, was arrested and remanded in custody for four days.

Andreas Patsalides is under investigation by Morphou CID for theft, illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, entering a restricted area, carrying a weapon with intent to terrorise, illegal possession of a knife and threatening to use violence.

According to CID Sergeant Socrates Socratous, the incident took place at the Afysallos guard post in the mountain area of Skouriotissa at around 1.30am yesterday.

“The suspect approached the guard soldier with a knife and managed to take his G3A3 assault rifle and his ammunition,” the investigator told the court yesterday. He also took the soldier’s mobile telephone.

“He then walked into the guard post area where he woke up three other soldiers and forced one of the soldiers to give him the other weapon in the gun-cabinet. The soldier left and abandoned one of the guns around 100 metres away. Around 15 minutes later, three shots were fired a short distance away.”

The soldiers gave a description of the assailant and he was picked a short while later at the home of the popular priest Pankratios.

Appearing in court yesterday without a lawyer, Patsalides told Judge Alexandros Panayiotou that he had never threatened the soldiers but that he was disorientated from the medication and alcohol he had previously consumed.

He also claimed that he took the weapons because he felt his life was in danger from people “threatening to kill me and wanting to see me sleeping in the river”.

Investigators yesterday requested a remand period of eight days but were denied by Judge Panayiotou, who described their request as “excessive”.

He then remanded Patsalides in police custody for four days.

Defence Minister Christodoulos Pashiardes said yesterday: “The matter is now in the hands of a police and they will be taking the appropriate steps.”

The minister insisted the incident was not an overall worry for the army, describing it as “an isolated incident that appears to have been committed by somebody with problems”.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007

Is it not time the national Guard was disbanded ..if these soldiers were in the british or any other NATO army...
they would be JAILED ....At no time do you hand over or allow your weapon to be held by a non friendly /civilian ..nor do you loose your gun


these guys should be jailed not only the drunk guy ..try doing that to a squaddie ...youd be eating the floor ...

national joke ...waste of £350 million cyp a year ....

i served in the U.K army and did my national service ...,i teach U.N combatants ...this is jailable act ...only in cyprus can this happen ..

for the softies on this forum ...who will criticise ...by law a soldier can tell you halt x2 ,...shoot his gun near you and on the third halt shoot you ..

any body want to test this out

[dms007]

what i do not understand is that the soldier had a gun and the assailant had a knife and managed to disarm the soldiers.
do they teach them combat techniques in their training?

[OB1]

the problem is that everybody HAS to joint the army here, so everybody has access to a rifle hence unstable or not very clever people can have a rifle. The army officers fear the case were somebody will shoot somebody because of a misunderstanding or because they think their balls are huge, and if so the one who would get the blame is the officers "of-course", hence they tell them "HERE IS YOUR GUN BUT UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE IT ......DONT WORRY NOTHING HAPPENS HERE"

[twinkle]

No the problem is, most of these kids are mummy's boys and have never had a confrontation in their life. The only confrontation they have is with their mother's cos their mother's haven't washed their clothes or made their favourite food.

How many of you have stories of mothers and fathers trying to pull strings to get their sons out of the NG or get them closer to home? Be like the Greek army, send them up to the Turkish boarders 6 hours drive from Athens!!!

They are all Butter Boys.

There will be stories now from worried parents that their sons are in danger of knife wielding maniacs and that the NG will need protection...Bloody joke!

[Eliko]

Clint Eastwood and his like have often managed to dis-arm sentries at knife-point in the small hours.

At least the assailant did not take homicidal advantage and has probably done the services a favour by exposing laxity in the ranks.

The guard may have been a young man who's morale was at a low ebb on account of the futility of his duties, his assailant, an older man possibly on a mission of bravado attempting to highlight the futility.

All the military posturing along the borders is a complete waste of time since the Turkish forces could take the whole island in jig time, settle down lads, it is unlikely to happen.

[raiseurfist]

The soldiers are ordered not to carry their weapons loaded and most of the times the ammunition are carried separately in a stiched bag and quite hard to access.
That is to prevent "accidents". The whole idea is stupid.

And those who think they are cool enough to "Van Damme" a drug addict with a knife, trust me you would think at least twice before moving a muscle.

[Eliko]

raiseurfist, right on mate, good luck.

[Nikitas]

I can easily imagine the headlines had the encounter developed the way Oranos describes. Soldier shouts halt twice, then fires a warning shot, then wounds/kills the obviously mentally unbalanced person who is under the influence of drugs and alcohol. "Soldiers execute mentally handicapped" would be the headline. Soldiers would also go to jail for homicide. There is also another scenario, where the mentally unbalanced person attacks and kills a soldier and the headlines would scream "recruit slain by maniac" etc. In either case there would be political repercussions.

Conclusion- political cost has clouded the rules of engagement at every level of the army, from the individual recruit and up.

[EPSILON]

Clint Eastwood and his like have often managed to dis-arm sentries at knife-point in the small hours.

At least the assailant did not take homicidal advantage and has probably done the services a favour by exposing laxity in the ranks.

The guard may have been a young man who's morale was at a low ebb on account of the futility of his duties, his assailant, an older man possibly on a mission of bravado attempting to highlight the futility.

All the military posturing along the borders is a complete waste of time since the Turkish forces could take the whole island in jig time, settle down lads, it is unlikely to happen.

We agree that Turkish forces can take the Island , at least let them to have a dead soldier before they suceed this, not like the other time.

[oranos64]

what i do not understand is that the soldier had a gun and the assailant had a knife and managed to disarm the soldiers.
do they teach them combat techniques in their training?

NO THEY DONT MATE...NOTHING ...AND UNLIKE NATO SOLDIERS ..THE BULLETS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO BE IN THE CHAMBER WHEN ON GUARD DUTY ...TECHNICALLY THEY SHOULD BE BUT MOST DONT ...

IF HE WAS TAUGHT HOW TO FIGHT LIKE MY OFFICERS ....HAHAHA

U.N AND TRNC .ARMY ...ARE CALLING IT A GOOD EXAMPLE OF WHY THE CYP ARMY IS JUST A MICKY MOUSE MILITIA .....

I AM VEXED ...THAT THIS IS .IN SOME WAYS TRUE ...

ROLLL ON 2010