US and Canada probe possible friendly-fire deaths

AMERICAN and Canadian armed forces are investigating reports that friendly fire may have caused the deaths of a US and Canadian soldier during a gun battle at a base in southern Afghanistan.

Another US soldier and three Canadian troops as well as an Afghan soldier were wounded in the Taliban attack on the base in Helmand province last Saturday.

A coalition statement said: “The investigation will determine all the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident, including whether any of the casualties may have resulted from friendly fire.”

It said a joint US-Canadian-Afghan team would carry out the probe.

US forces have suffered seven friendly fire casualties in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban in 2001, according to US officials.

A total of 222 US troops have died in combat in and around Afghanistan in the same time period.

The most well-known US friendly fire casualty in Afghanistan was that of sports star Pat Tillman, who was killed in a 2004 shooting near the Pakistan border.

The army initially said he had been killed by enemy fire, but later said he died from gunfire from his fellow Army Rangers.

The US Defence Department last month announced it had launched an investigation into allegations of an army cover-up into the death of Corporal Tillman, who quit a lucrative NFL football contract to join the army.

Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded when a US fighter mistakenly bombed them while they were on a training exercise near the town of Kandahar in 2002.