Reuters (17/4/02) Errant US Bomb Kills Canadian Troops.

Four Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan) early on Thursday when a patrolling U.S. jet mistakenly attacked them during a training exercise, and Ottawa said it wanted answers soon as to how the "horrible accident" had happened.

U.S. officials said the jet was not part of the night-time exercise and had received permission to drop a 500-pound laser-guided bomb on the soldiers after the pilot thought he had come under fire from the ground.

But Canadian defense officials said they were mystified by the attack since the troops were in a recognized training zone just south of Kandahar and had at no time been firing into the air. Eight soldiers were injured, two of them seriously.

Following on from a British soldier being killed by a "stray bullet, not believed to be hostile" last week, and various recent attacks on peace-keeping forces in Kabul, the security situation in Afghanistan appears to be deteriorating. With tribal factions increasingly agitating against the transtional government, and residual Taliban and Al Queida elements re-emerging from Pakistan, and presenting an increasing threat for acts of terrorism against Western Forces, this could become a real mess.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Answers

Christ, it seems we've had more allied soldiers killed by US troops since WWII than by any other nation & we've been on their side.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Blame canada...

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

I share your concerns Clarky. I can't help thinking the Brits (& it could be Canadians) are being used as cannon fodder while the Yanks play in their planes.

Not only that, it's becoming less clear who the good guys are.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

The Canadian FF Casualties are a cause for concern and yes we've been here before but to put things into perspective. The US has had more people die in accidents such as helicopter crashes than actual combat or related. I am not saying if you run an operation like this you will get casualties, (indeed you get casualties on exercise) don't let the typically fickle Press blow this out of proportion. As for the security situation deteriorating, I think that should read normalising. Don't forget they are there to peace keep and stop these silly buggers knacking the situation before in beds in which means physical presence and danger, they're not handing out bloody Sandwiches or throwing food out of helicopters....seems to me they're doing a good job.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Nobody's suggesting the troops aren't doing a good job Rog. The real question is is there a clear objective and defined endpoint to their mission, because the situation appears to be deteriorating and the dangers they are being exposed to increasing?

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

The history of Afghanistan suggests that every time a particular tribe/faction is driven into the hills they pretty nearly always come back down again as the victors within about 10 years. If Mohammed won't come down off the mountain....

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

In that case Softie, why don't we send Bobby and the lads into the hills for a while...........

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

'Cos I'm quite happy down my local pub on a Friday, thanks :-)

Anyone else starting to be concerned that this mopping up exercise is getting a bit involved? Firstly, Blair and Bush tell us the evil regime of the Talitubbies is over. Then there are some elements of Al's Car Dealers holding out in a few small cities. Then we find that there is a major complex of underground bases in the Tora Bora mountains. Now the US has asked for Royal Marine support (1500 men) in the East of the country. They find f**k all except abandoned camps.

Meantime, wasn't there a hunt for Bin Liner too? First, he's being closed in. Then he's surrounded. Then he may be dead. Now the US admits they haven't a clue where he is. Now we hear some locally recruited Afghans may have taken bribes to allow safe passage for hold-out Talibans to Pakistan.

"Mr Bush, there's a Mr F**kup at reception for you."

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

I'm getting really concerned Bobby - especially with our boys now very much in the firing line.

Despite The Pentagon telling us that they believed they had killed several hundred Al Qaida fighters in Operation Anaconda, conventional wisdom now appears to be that a relatively small number, perhaps less than a hundred, were actually killed with the rest - maybe 1,000 or more - slipping over the border into Pakistan to regroup.

It also now seems possible that some of the Afghan fighters supposed to be supporting the US troops in tis exercise may actually have assisted the terrorists to escape!

What a dog's breakfast.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

The yanks are playing it brilliantly aren't they? They got the Afghans to fight the ground war and take Kabul and now they're getting the Brits to do the mopping up operation. Meanwhile they can fly around bombing the odd Canadian unit.

There was a bloke on the radio this morning who said that the operation in the mountainous regions would take up to 10 years to complete! They also quoted a US marine who said "we don't do mountains".

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Found this interview about Al's Car Dealers and bin Liner. Worth a peak if you have 10 minutes to spare.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Aye Clarky don't worry I wasn't inferring the thread was saying our forces weren't doing the job. No the main point is to see a wider point than the Americans genuinely f*ckin this one up, which I think they are. If we are all serious about this I think a couple of points. Firstly I too see the American forces in this in total malaise about what they are doing let alone as leaders of others. This stems from the malaise in the white house with little idea what exactly will happen next. The FP at the oval office is confused if I was polite but seeing as I'm not it isolationist, moralistic, populist and down right dangerous. This presidency was compared to carter recently by Fergal Kean of the independent. An interesting point as I once thought Bush Jnr was as bad as Reagan, now he's so much worse. The biggest example of such poor performance FP wise is that his own governemt cannot even coordinate policy between sections of Govt let alone Allies. Whilst I also believe (from far away) that Blair has played a blinder since S11 (not so much recently) in keeping some of the Hawkish lunacy in check, the Israeli/Palestinian Sharon inpired 'end game' has sidelinedlined him and this should enable him to get us out of problematic scenarios such as Karbul. (ie back off whilsy still supporting policy, they owe us) I saw that they are attempting a NATO solution to this which would make sense. A window to back off the W.House hawks is coming up, Powell sadly seems to have lost to the isolationists....we got 6 months tops. You lot aren't interested, I'm sure, useless degrees don't come more useless than International Relations...

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

Can't speak for anyone else Rog - but I find it fascinating, not to say bloody scary. And the Palestine situation is a lot more scary than Afghanistan.

Apparently the doomsday scenario of real concern here is that Saddam lobs a "dirty" bomb - either biological or a container of heavily contaminated nuclear material (note: nothing as sophisticated as an actual nuclear device, just highly radioactive material that they splatter all over the place!) into Tel Aviv and kills/mames a few thousand Israelis. It is believed highly probable that Israel would nuke Baghdad in retaliation and in defence of the survival of the State of Israel. There's a comforting thought.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

And to think it's all because the UK abstained it's vote which created the state of Israel....that's standing up to terrorism for you.

Israel and Palestine will not see any peace for the next 50 yrs. Arafat needs shooting and Sharon needs hanging.

I'm not sure Saddam is daft enough to launch unconventional attacks on Israel (e.g. 'dirty' bomb). Although this likelihood is increased with the 'axis of evil' sh*te coming out of Washington, and the priming of the public to expect a resurgence of military action in Iraq. BTW as far as I know there has continued to be a military presence and activity over Iraq - like the no-fly zone.

The conflict in Afghanistan could incroach into Pakistan, and India may take advantage of perceived Pakistani support for anti-Alliance forces by massing troops in Kashmir. So that could kick off nicely too. Not to mention the unifying Islamic thread through all of this too.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

.......apart from that you reckon we'll finish 4th though, Bobby?

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002

USA will probably win. Saudi Arabia 2nd on oil difference. Israel 3rd but claiming that important European place (Eurovision). UK 4th for making a late contribution. Palastinian homelands will get 5th as a consolation. Lebanon gets the Intertoto - where who knows what the f**k is going on there!

Relegated are Afghanistan - due a whole heap of trouble for the next generation. With them is Pakistan for being downright 2-faced (nice that their military dictatorship is going strong). Bottom is Iraq - the people doomed to more air raids, increased sanctions (youth team mostly affected) and another 12 months of dithering for their manager to get them back up again (this time on an extended bonus and contract deal...great when you own, manage and run the club!).

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2002