Remains of 5 NY truck ramming victims returned to Argentina

Military honor guard salutes bodies of those murdered in Manhattan terror attack, among them Jewish businessman Ariel Erlij

The remains of five Argentine men killed in the truck ramming attack in New York arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday, en route to the victims’ hometown of Rosario for burial.

The Argentine foreign ministry identified them as Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco, Hernan Ferruchi and Ariel Erlij, a Jewish businessman.

The trip was paid for by Erlij, the chief executive of Ivanar, an Argentine steel products manufacturing company, according to Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper. Several of the victims were architects.

The five men were friends celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation from a prestigious Rosario high school. Eight people in all died in the terror attack on October 31.

Ariel Erlij, third from left, poses with friends taking part in a high school reunion. Five members of the group, including Erlij, were killed when a terrorist rammed a truck into pedestrians in New York, October 31, 2017. (Facebook)

An Argentine national is also among the 12 people injured, while four other Argentinians — all from the same group — survived the attack unscathed.

A military honor guard on horseback raised their arms in salute as the funeral cortege made its way under police escort from the airport to the highway leading to Rosario, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of the capital.

Also aboard the flight from New York were the four Argentine attack survivors, and relatives of the victims.

In a statement, relatives of the victims pleaded for “love to overcome hatred, and for life to prevail over death.”

The remaining friend in the group remains hospitalized in New York.

A woman holds an Argentinian flag as people walk holding lit candles along the Hudson River near the crime scene to remember the victims of the recent truck attack on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is in New York, where he will pay tribute to the victims at an event at the site of the attack.

Sayfullo Saipov, a 29 year-old immigrant from Uzbekistan, is under arrest on terrorism charges for allegedly driving a rented pickup truck down a mile-long stretch of bike path in Manhattan and hitting cyclists and pedestrians along the way.