US Bombing Kills 4 Canadian Troops, Injures 8 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit AFGHANISTAN: US BOMBING KILLS 4 CANADIAN SOLDIERS, WOUNDS 8 Reuters - Thu Apr 18, 1:55 AM ET (via Yahoo) By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded in Afghanistan when a U.S. F-16 warplane dropped one or two bombs on them in a friendly fire incident, Canadian Gen. Ray Henault said on Thursday. Coming just three days after the latest U.S. deaths in Afghanistan, the incident marked the **first Canadian casualties in an offensive combat operation since the 1950-53 Korean War.** [NOTE: This seems unlikely, since Canadians served with the US in its war against Vietnam -- NY Transfer] Henault said the U.S. plane clearly misidentified the Canadian forces, who were conducting a live-fire training exercise in the early hours of Thursday morning, Afghanistan time, in a recognized training zone south of Kandahar. "We remain committed in our duty to this campaign and will certainly continue," Henault, chief of the defense staff, told a midnight news conference in Ottawa. Prime Minister Jean Chretien promised to investigate the incident, which occurred at 5:25 p.m. EDT Wednesday. "(U.S.) President (George W.) Bush called me tonight to offer the sincerest condolences of the American people to the Canadian families. He also pledged complete cooperation with Canadian authorities who will carry out a thorough and complete investigation," Chretien said in a statement on Wednesday night. Henault said the F-16 would have been on a patrol of the skies above Afghanistan, on well-controlled routes, and was not connected with the training exercise. He said it would normally have to get permission from the ground before attacking. He said the Canadian troops were only firing at ground targets during the night-time exercise. "My understanding is that there was no hostile activity in the area that would have created this incident," Henault said, adding however that details were still sketchy. "How this sort of thing could happen is a mystery to us." Because the exercise was in the middle of the night, he said there was no way for the fighter flying at high altitude to visually identify the nationality of the Canadian troops before unleashing the 500-pound bomb or bombs. Henault said six of the injuries were serious, and the soldiers would be evacuated to a U.S. medical facility either in nearby Uzbekistan or at Ramstein in Germany. Two who were slightly injured will remain in Kandahar, base of the more than 800 Canadian troops serving with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The bodies of the four who were killed will be transferred to Ramstein on Thursday en route to Canada. Five hundred Canadians had led U.S. troops without casualties in an offensive in March in eastern Afghanistan, where they were flushing out caves thought to have harbored fighters of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network. On Monday, four U.S. troops were killed and one was badly injured while blowing up unexploded ordnance near Kandahar. More than 30 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan or in the region since the United States began a campaign on Oct. 7 that toppled the ruling Taliban and routed the al Qaeda network in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Prior to Wednesday, non-U.S. military deaths among Western coalition forces had included an Australian, two Germans and three Danes. Chretien said the Canadian casualties were an awful blow. "Yet is my hope that some comfort may be found in the knowledge that those who have been taken were serving their country with valor and gallantry in a great struggle for justice and freedom," he said. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-04.18.02-03:55:18-27700