Probe clears Canadians in Afghan police death

[GAP]

Probe clears Canadians in Afghan police death
See picture of Police Vehicle at bottom of posting
Updated Mon. Oct. 23 2006 11:31 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061023/military_probe_061023/20061023?hub=Canada

A military probe has cleared Canadian soldiers in the fatal shooting of an Afghan policeman, concluding his vehicle was unmarked when it sped towards a checkpoint.

The officer died in late August, after soldiers opened fire on his white pickup truck, about 25 kilometres west of Kandahar.

One bullet passed through the vehicle's windshield, killing the officer. Six other Afghan police officers were injured.

Some witness accounts claimed the truck was marked as an Afghan police vehicle. But the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (NIS) has released a photograph of the vehicle, clearly showing it was unmarked.

NATO had remained adamant the soldiers could not have known they were firing at police officers.

"Neither their vehicle, nor their immediate appearance, readily identified them (as police)," Col. Fred Lewis, the deputy commander of Canada's NATO contingent in southern Afghanistan, said in August.

NIS also concluded soldiers correctly followed the necessary rules of engagement. Some witness accounts said the police had shot at the soldiers, who then returned fire.

The dead officer is believed to have been a part of Afghanistan's secret police.
End

 

[HollywoodHitman]

Clearly someone is doing some investigating BEFORE deciding on wrong doing. Well done to all involved. For the soldier/s involved in the incident, well done.

 

[ProPatria Mike]

Clean kill..... Was there any doubt?

 

[captjtq]

I prefer the term investigation to probe, but hey... at least the results of the investigation were positive from an ROE perspective, newspaper posturing aside. It's obviously sad that we lost friendlies in the exchange, but perhaps this will go some way in providing education/awareness to ANP in the area in terms of the appropriate methods of approaching checkpoints. Not much difference than a lot of things in Canada; it often takes an incident with fatalities to produce positive future results.

JTQ