Friendly fire that killed Canadian was 'freak accident': major

Two U.S. aircraft mistakenly fired on a Canadian platoon taking part in NATO'smassive anti-Taliban operation in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing one soldier and injuring dozens of others.

The soldier whowas killedwasidentified by the Canadian military on Monday evening as Pte. Mark Anthony Graham.In all, 32Canadian soldiers have died since the mission to Afghanistan began in 2002. A Canadian diplomatwas also killed.

The incident occurred at about 5:30 a.m. local time when two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts, operating under NATO command, responded to a call for support from soldiers trying to take a Taliban stronghold west of Kandahar along the Arghandab River.

Maj. Geoff Abthorpe who commandsBravo Company,part of Canada's 2,200-strong contribution to the NATO force in Afghanistan called the incident "a freak accident."

The soldiers were "marshalling and getting into position" when they were hit, Abthorpe told the Canadian Press late Monday.

NATO said the aircraft had engaged friendly forces during a strafing run, using cannons.

"I'm not sure who brought them in and for what reason," said Abthorpe, a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment.

"It wasn't us, of course. We were getting prepped to go out but our first air mission wasn't scheduled until 30 minutes later."

Full investigation promised

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian Armed Forces general who is in charge of the NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, promised earlier in the day that the incident would be thoroughly investigated.

"We've got to find out what were the details there," Fraser said.

"We do have procedures, we do have communications, we do have training and tactics and techniques and procedures to mitigate the risk, but we can't reduce those risks to zero," he said.

The Americans were taking part in Operation Medusa, a NATO air and land offensive aimed at purging militants from one of their strongholds, in the Panjwaii area west of the city of Kandahar.

Hopeful prognosis for wounded soldiers

Five of the 30 soldiers wounded in the attack were to be airlifted to hospitals outside of Afghanistan. Their conditions were not immediately made public.

Officials predicted the rest of the wounded soldiers would be back on duty within days.

More than 18,500 troops from 37 nations make up NATO's deployment in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which took over control of the coalition forces in the summer from the United States.

NATO spokesman Mark Laity said the force's soldiers flew in roughly 800 missions during the past month and used their weapons in about 450 of them without killing any allies until now.

"It shows you how rare [friendly fire] is," Laity said.

Lacking air support of their own, the Canadian forces have been relying on British and U.S. planes. The A-10, nicknamed the Warthog, can fire 3,900 rounds a minute from its main 30-millimetre cannon.

Laity, who spoke from Kabul, said NATO's soldiers in the country are "grimly determined" to defeat an enemy that is offering strong resistance.

"The scale and ferocity has been at the upper end of our expectations," said Laity. "I don't think we've underestimated them but we do have a very tough fight going on."

Earlier 'friendly fire' incidents

It isn't the first time that Canadian troops have died in so-called friendly-fire incidents in Afghanistan.

Earlier in August, Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh died after apparently being shot accidentally by a comrade.

However, the friendly-fire case that created the greatest controversy and outrage in Canada came in 2002, when a U.S. fighter jet mistakenly dropped a bomb on Canadian forces as they conducted a training exercise.

The bomb killed four Canadians from the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and wounded eight others.

DND names 3rd Canadian killed by Taliban

The incident on Monday came less than 24 hours after four Canadian soldiers were killed in the same district while battling Taliban as part of Operation Medusa.

Two of the four Canadians were identified on Sunday: Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish, who grew up in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan, from Newfoundland and Labrador.

On Monday, Department of National Defence officials identified a third soldier, Sgt. Shane Stachnik, who served with the 2 Combat Engineer Regiment based out of CFB Petawawa in Ontario.

The military said nine other Canadians were injured in the fighting, one seriously, while NATO troops killed about 200 militants.