OTTAWA (REUTERS)–Canadian leaders vowed Thursday to find out why four of the country’s soldiers perished on the ground in Afghanistan from U.S. “friendly fire” as a nation more known for its peacekeeping operations reeled in disbelief.
With flags at half-staff across the country, Canadian soldiers, politicians and the public expressed grief over the soldiers who died early Thursday when a U.S. jet let loose a 500-pound, or 225-kilogram, laser-guided bomb on the men performing in a training exercise.
Parliament held a minute’s formal silence for the dead soldiers, Canada’s first casualties in an offensive operation since the 1950-53 Korean War.
All that is known is that a U.S. F-16 warplane dropped its deadly cargo after believing it was being fired upon, leaving four dead and eight wounded, with two of them in serious but stable condition.
Stressing that reports were “very, very preliminary,” one of the officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters at least one pilot in a flight of U.S. Air Force F-16s thought the planes had been shot at near Kandahar.
But Canada’s top military officer said in Ottawa the troops were in a designated training area conducting live-fire exercises.
“We have so many questions this morning,” a visibly shaken Prime Minister Jean Chretien told Parliament. “Extensive training for combat is meant to save lives.”
“In this awful case, it took so many lives. And I want to assure the families and the people of Canada that these questions will be answered,” he said, referring to the attack as “a horrible accident.”
With flags flying low amid swirling snow, bunches of tulips and roses were placed at the entrance of the soldiers’ garrison in Edmonton, Alberta, the base for the Third Battalion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
“Sure, I was surprised and I was shocked. We all are,” said Brig. Gen. Ivan Fenton, his voice sometimes choked with emotion. “But high-tech [equipment] gives great advantages and it opens some vulnerabilities as well … These things have happened for centuries, things like this, so the technology can’t prevent things like this.”
President Bush called Prime Minister Jean Chretien to express his condolences and to promise the United States, Canada’s giant neighbor and ally, would do all it could to find out what happened and why.
“Canada’s fallen heroes and their families are in our hearts and prayers,” Bush said in a written statement.
“We will draw every possible lesson from what happened and do everything we can to protect coalition forces engaged in this vitally important mission.”
Canadian defense officials said they were mystified by the attack, since the troops were in a recognized training zone near Kandahar and had not been firing into the air.
It was one of the worst “friendly fire” accidents of the war in which U.S. and allied troops are hunting al Qaeda guerrillas and fighters of Afghanistan’s deposed Taliban leadership.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke called the incident a “terrible tragedy” and said the Canadian troops had been “fabulous in their support in the war on terrorism.”
The troops were part of an 800-strong contingent serving in southern Afghanistan under U.S. command.
General Ray Henault, the Canadian armed forces’ chief of staff, said the nation remained committed to the Afghan mission.
No question of Canadian outrage
Three U.S. troops and five Afghan fighters were killed and nearly 40 U.S. and Afghan troops injured Dec. 5, when B-52 bombers accidentally bombed American special forces and supporting Afghan troops north of Kandahar.
Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton, who was called by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, expressed deep shock at the incident and said Canada and the United States would carry out probes into the attack.
“There is no question of outrage on our behalf. It was an accident, but we need to know what happened,” he told Reuters.
“We all want to have it done just as quickly as possible. Everybody wants the answers. The government wants the answers, the families want the answers. We want to know soon.”
Eggleton spokesman Randy Mylyk said the United States and Canada had each initiated military police investigations and were each also setting up separate boards of inquiry.
“My understanding is that there was no hostile activity in the area that would have created this incident,” Henault said. “How this sort of thing could happen is a mystery to us.”
Speaking at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul, U.S. military spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty said the pilots were very experienced. “We do risk assessment before any mission; we try to make sure we have all sorts of procedures, tactics and techniques in place to mitigate risk. But unfortunately, this is inherently dangerous,” he said.
Canadian Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson–commander in chief and representative of Canada’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth–flew Thursday from London to the U.S. Ramstein airbase in Germany to salute the fallen and to greet the six injured who are to be treated there.
The six arrived in Ramstein late Thursday, at least two carried off on stretchers to waiting ambulances. Henault said the remains of the dead would leave Afghanistan Friday and arrive in Ramstein early Saturday morning.
Two who were slightly injured remained in Kandahar, where the Canadian troops are based.
–Additional reporting by Randall Palmer and Irene Marushko in Ottawa, Charles Aldinger in Washington and Janet Guttsman in Toronto