NATO: Cdn troops accidentally kill Afghan civilian

[schart28]

Cnews: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/2006/12/13/2770575-cp.html

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - An Afghan citizen was accidentally killed Tuesday by Canadian troops in Kandahar City.

NATO says a motorcyclist travelling at a high speed approached a security cordon near where Afghan President Hamid Karzai was meeting with senior Canadian officials, including Canadian ambassador David Sproule. The motorcyclist refused to stop despite verbal warnings. Troops fired a warning shot into the ground, which ricocheted and hit the man.

Afghan National Police officers were on the scene immediately to transport the casualty to the local hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

NATO said the loss of life was regrettable and it wasn't known why the motorcyclist refused to stop.

A full investigation is underway.

 

[midget-boyd91]

Well apparently the man killed was a symbol that was highly  recognizable in Afghanistan and was let through the outer perimeter, but was not recognized when he reached the Canadian inner perimeter. It is a terribly sad accident and we can only hope that people will realize that it WAS in fact an accident and will not hold Canadians at fault, especially where he was a symbol to many people.

 

[schart28]

I am sure they won't hold the CDN at fault.

 

[GO!!!]

Well apparently the man killed was a symbol that was highly  recognizable in Afghanistan and was let through the outer perimeter, but was not recognized when he reached the Canadian inner perimeter. It is a terribly sad accident and we can only hope that people will realize that it WAS in fact an accident and will not hold Canadians at fault, especially where he was a symbol to many people.

He was not a "symbol" or any other eloquent descriptive term. He attempted to run through an ISAF/NATO cordon and paid with his life - nothing more, nothing less. The threat of suicide bombers is extreme right now, and the enemy is well known for their penchant to probe our defences with hapless civilians, just to see what ISAF/NATO troops will do, so that they can learn to counter it.

That he made it through the outer cordon is not an indicator of his innocence or guilt, but more the need for Afghanistan to have a well trained, professional Security Force (ANA,ANP) to prevent such happenings in the first place. You run the checkpoint, you die - it has to be that way.

 

[midget-boyd91]

He was not a "symbol" or any other eloquent descriptive term. He attempted to run through an ISAF/NATO cordon and paid with his life - nothing more, nothing less.

I had only heard on TV about it before my first post, but after I read more on it I found this at CTV.ca

"What is known for sure is that he had at, one point at least, been a member of a religious consultative body that was advising the Afghanistan government on how to deal with the insurgency and the Taliban in this region," CTV's Murray Oliver reported from Kandahar.
.....      Speculation is that the man was well known enough by Afghan officials that he was passed through, Oliver said. 

 

[paracowboy]

Speculation is

'nuff said.

And that only serves to illustrate GO!!!'s point. If the Afghan security pers had been professional enough, they would have realized that the ISAF kaffirs wouldn't know this guy from Adam, and would have info'd the ISAF pers, or escorted the "member of a religious consultative body that was advising the Afghanistan government" through the cordon themselves. They did not, the ISAF troops reacted according to SOP, and clown-shoes died. He violated The Rules. The Afghan security pers violated The Rules. And now ISAF pays for their negligence.

Outstanding.

 

[Kilo_302]

I hate to sound callous, but Canadian soldiers have gone to great lengths to avoid killing civilians at checkpoints, from posting signs on their vehicles to warning shots. The Afghans have suffered enough, but it gets to the point where an Afghan civilian should be thinking, "Right, so there's a NATO checkpoint, I'm going to stop until they wave me through, and when that happens, I'm going through VERY slowly."

 

[midget-boyd91]

Dont worry I know that it's just speculation... I only put that part of the quote in there because it went with what I had said in the first post I made in this thread about the man who was killed being recognized and waved in.

 

[1feral1]

At least you guys fire warning shots... we don't.

No matter who you are (well known or not), everyone MUST obey the hand signals of the soldiers or face the consequences. The person killed has no one to blame but himself, and hats off to the CF Mbrs who followed their ROEs to the T, protecting themselves and others for if they let him through, and he self-detonated, we'd be reading about it here, and commenting on the death of yet another CF Mbr(s)!

Regretable, yes, but thats life.

My opinion.


Regards,

Wes

 

[Kilo_302]

Regretable, yes, but thats life

and death.

 

[paracowboy]

and death.

whatever. Death is part of life. It is the inevitable result of Life. You begin to die the very instant you are conceived, and every second of life brings you one second closer to death.

Whatever.

 

[Kilo_302]

This is true. All I'm saying is the death of a civilian could be considered regrettable, regardless if it was their fault (which appears to be the case in this situation).

 

[1feral1]

and death.

Shyte happens K302!

Get over it or move on!

I really don't know quite where you are coming from. Are you stirring the pot? Would you have rather several Allied soldiers killed by some type of SVIED here, or what?

I have given you the benifit of the doubt until now, and you wonder why others say what they say about your posts.

I don't know who you are, or IF you have any experience in any form of military service, but in this war, the bad guys don't wear uniforms, their tactics are yellow and cowardly, many Allied soldiers have been killed and wounded for letting people in cars, on push bikes and motorbiles pass.

Frankly if you don't know already, life is cheap in this part of the world. Infact VERY cheap, outragously cheap! They do not embrace it as us westerners do. Thats just how it is here, and one has to accept that.

I have taken the time recently to discect many of your posts, and I have not commented really til now, so you are not happy here, I am sure there is other websites for you to enjoy.

Wes

 

[xo31@711ret]

+1 Wes; I dunno, but if I seen a checkpoint with a bunch of people in 'uniforms' carrying weapons, heard a (warning) shot, I would be done on my knees, hands claspped behind my head,make like the proverbial statue and wait for further 'orders'....but hey that's just me

 

[Good2Golf]

Not to be overly calous, but Darwin was a wise man...

 

[Blackhorse7]

Concur, better him than us.  Stop means stop, especially when it's a man that will kill you if you don't telling you to do it.  I've been a LONG standing believer that the ROE's should change to nobody on a motor vehicle within 100 metres.... anywhere inside of that is dealt with immediately and permanently.

 

[Lost_Warrior]

+1 Wes; I dunno, but if I seen a checkpoint with a bunch of people in 'uniforms' carrying weapons, heard a (warning) shot , I would be done on my knees, hands claspped behind my head,make like the proverbial statue and wait for further 'orders'....but hey that's just me

I don't know if you read the article or not, but he didn't have a chance to heed to the warning shot, as it was the warning shot that apparently killed him.

 

[Blackhorse7]

The article ALSO says that the man failed to stop despite several verbal warnings.  In these days of suicide bombers that roll right up to you in cars and on motorcycles, you only have bare seconds to make the call to drop a potential threat.  How about staying faaarrr away from security corridors, or even taking another route.

 

[Lost_Warrior]

Exactly.  IMHO, I say we wait and let the investigators do their jobs.  We can talk here say as to why he didn't heed to the verbal calls to halt (didn't hear? Who knows) but it will all be simply that... here say.

 

[Good2Golf]

Exactly.  IMHO, I say we wait and let the investigators do their jobs.  We can talk here say as to why he didn't heed to the verbal calls to halt (didn't hear? Who knows) but it will all be simply that... here say.

Since he is dead, it is highly unlikely we will ever know why he didn't stop.  It is not as though people in that region are unfamiliar with procedures at vehicle checkpoints...there are written instructions in Dari, Pashto, English as well as pictograms.  I would also assume the universal hand signals for slow down and for stop were given as well.  High speed running towards the VCP is plain stupid!  There wasn't a single VCP that I approached in AFG at anything other than a very clearly slowing pace with good distance to crawl forward to the check point personnel.

G2G