Gen. Chaim Laskov was officially named today commander-in-chief of Israel’s southern forces, succeeding Col. Assaf Simchoni, commander of the Sinai operation, who was shot down and killed over Jordan territory last week.
Premier David Ben Gurion, as well as president Ben Zvi, Speaker of the Knesset, Joseph Sprinzak, Army Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan and representatives of the Chief Rabbi headed a huge party of mourners who accompanied the coffin of Col. Simchoni, at the funeral yesterday. Burial was in the national military cemetery near Mt. Herzl.
The partly burned bodies of Col. Simchoni, his aide Lt. Col. Dromi and their pilot were turned over to the Israelis by Jordanian soldiers to the United Nations authorities at the Mandelbaum Gate here.
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