CYPRUS:The US embassy in Nicosia confirmed yesterday that the body found on a dirt track in a remote area of Cyprus was missing military attache Lieut Col Thomas Mooney.
The remains were discovered in woods 200m (656ft) from his parked and locked car by a trainer walking his dogs. The area is 45km (28 miles) west of Nicosia. The attache had been dead for several days.
In a written statement, ambassador Ronald Schlicher said: "After the notification of next of kin, with deep sadness, I announce that Lieut Col Thomas Mooney, who served his nation with distinction as our defence attache, was found dead by Cypriot authorities on Monday."
Mr Schlicher added that Independence Day celebrations, scheduled for yesterday, had been cancelled.
British trained pathologist Marios Matsakis ruled out foul play after examining the body on site and during an autopsy. He said Lieut Col Mooney had died of self-inflicted wounds.
The lieutenant had not been seen since Thursday afternoon when he left the fortified embassy building.
Twenty-four hours after he disappeared, officials issued an appeal for information on his whereabouts. Police initiated an intensive search, focusing on the mountains where he might have had an accident on a narrow road or been caught in a massive forest fire that devastated a large region of the Troodos range at the weekend.
Lieut Col Mooney, who had also served in the Middle East, including Iraq, began his second tour of duty in Cyprus last June and was part of a delegation that met US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when she made a brief stopover at Larnaca airport in July.
He was married with children although his family was not with him in Cyprus.
Cypriot justice minister Sophocles Sophocleous refused to comment on the case which is considered to be highly sensitive.
While Cyprus has generally been safe for diplomats, US ambassador Roger Davies was shot in his office at the embassy in 1974 by a sniper during a demonstration against what many Cypriots considered a pro-Turkish stand taken by Washington during the Turkish invasion and occupation of the northern third of the island in 1974.
In 1988 there was an attempted car bombing of the Israeli embassy in which the driver, a Lebanese, and two Cypriot bystanders were killed.