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| Sunday, 30 June 2002 |
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U.S. pilots blamed in Canadian Afghan deaths OTTAWA, June 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. F-16 pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan in April, killing four soldiers and injuring eight, are solely to blame for the incident, a Canadian military panel said on Friday, echoing the conclusion of a joint Canada-U.S. probe. "It's the opinion of the board that the pilots...were the two individuals who were a position to stop the chain of events that caused the deaths of our soldiers and that is why we say unequivocally that they are the cause of the accident," retired General Maurice Baril, Canada's former Chief of Defense Staff, told reporters. Baril said the actions of the pilots "represented a failure of airmanship and technique of the wingman and a failure of leadership of the flight leader." Canadian troops were not to blame in any way for the incident during the evening of April 17, when members of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were conducting a night live-fire training exercise on the ground near Kandahar airport, officials said. The four Canadian soldiers were bombed when one of two U.S. F-16 fighter jet pilots dropped a 500-pound (226.8 kilogram) laser-guided bomb on the the Princess Patricia soldiers. Another report, this by the Canada-U.S. Coalition Investigation Board (CIB), details of which were released in Tampa, Florida, on Friday, said the Americans had failed "to exercise appropriate flight discipline, which resulted in the violation of the rules of engagement and an inappropriate use of lethal force." The CIB report also found that "failings within the pilots' immediate command structures, while not causing the incident, were contributing factors." Canadian defense officials in Ottawa could not offer details on that finding, and a seven-page summary of their own report had passages blanked out for security reasons. The bombing of the Canadian troops was among the deadliest "friendly fire" incidents of the nine-month war in Afghanistan. It also marked the first time that Canadian soldiers, other than U.N, peacekeepers, had died in a combat zone since the Korean War. At a Florida news conference, U.S. Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong said two F-16s were heading back after a mission over Afghanistan when the pilot of one plane saw what he thought was surface-to-air fire. The lead F-16 pilot got permission from an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane to determine the precise location of the surface-to-air fire. But while the lead pilot was trying to get those coordinates, the pilot of the second F-16 requested permission to fire on the location. "AWACS told him to stand by and later requested that he provide additional information on the (surface-to-air fire) while also directing him to 'hold fire,'" DeLong said. "The wingman (second pilot) provided the requested information to the AWACS and immediately declared that he was 'rolling in, in self-defense'." The wingman then released a 500-pound laser-guided bomb that hit a Canadian firing position at the Tarnak Farm Range, DeLong said. Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum expressed regret over the incident and offered his sympathy for the soldiers and their families. "As illustrated by your four fallen comrades, you are a rare breed in that you put your life on the line for your country," McCallum said. "And yet, over the years, your country, my country, has not always treated you with the respect that you deserve." U.S. officials said all disciplinary options are possible in the case. In Nova Scotia, Joyce Clooney, the grandmother of 21-year-old Private Richard Green, who died in the bombing, said her grandson would not have wanted to "hang out to dry" the U.S. pilots blamed. "He knew when he went in the military that something could happen, but we certainly didn't expect it from friendly people," she told CBC television. |
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