Found it interesting, so I thought I’d share.
I’ll be very much following this news event to see if it actually turns out to be a result of ‘friendly fire’ that resulted in the death of the two soldiers.
Investigators are looking into whether friendly fire is to blame for the deaths of a Canadian and an American soldier in an Afghanistan firefight last week.
Private Robert Costall, 22, and U.S. National Guard First-Class Sergeant John Stone, 52, died last Wednesday in a battle with Taliban insurgents in the Sangin district of Helmand province. Eight Afghan National Army soldiers also died in the attack, and three other Canadians were wounded.
All three countries have now launched investigations into the violent battle, which began last Tuesday night and stretched well into Wednesday, when Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan army resupply convoy near a remote base in Helmand. About 30 Taliban rebels were killed.
The idea that friendly fire may have been to blame for the deaths was raised after an early review of the battle, but senior commanders wouldn’t divulge any further details as to why they think it’s a possibility.
“This fight was going on all day,” Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser said.
“The attacks on that base came from multiple directions. It was an attack at night. There was lots of fire going on there. I am not going to speculate on the friendly fire aspects.”
Though coalition forces launched air strikes against the Taliban the night of the battle, military officials have ruled that out as the cause of the deaths.
“The possibility of friendly fire, I say the possibility, did not come from the air. It was not about bombs,” Fraser said.
“So we are now investigating where this possible friendly fire came from, but it was not from an aircraft of any type.”
That means the deaths were the result of ground fire – whether friendly or hostile.
Unfortunately, an examination of the bullets might not provide any concrete answers, since both the Afghan forces and the Taliban use AK-47 assault rifles.
Costall’s death marked Canada’s first combat casualty in 30 years. His mother, reached at home in Sechelt, B.C., said she had no comment about the possibility friendly fire killed the soldiers.
The probe into what happened could take weeks or even months.
A funeral service for Private Costall will be held Thursday in his childhood home of Gibsons, B.C.
If the friendly fire theory ends up being correct, it wouldn’t be the first time Canadians have been mistakenly targeted. In April 2002, an American fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb near where Canadian soldiers were training – four were killed.
A total of 11 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have perished in Afghanistan since 2002.
Ref: Cdn. Soldier’s Death Could Have Been Result Of Friendly Fire