Afghan general says Canadian who shot convoy driver should be punished

[Bigmac]

MURRAY BREWSTER


KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - A Canadian soldier who opened fire on an Afghan National Army convoy wounding a military driver should face some kind of discipline in his own country, a senior Afghan commander said Thursday.

Lt.-Gen. Rahmatullah Raoufi said he understood the mistakes that led up to the incident, which has increased strain between the allies since it happened east of Kandahar on Monday.

The 23-year-old Afghan officer driving the lead vehicle missed the warning sign demanding that he stop, the general said. The Afghan vehicle was peppered with a blast of 7.62-millimetre machine-gun fire from the turret of a Canadian RG-31 Nyala vehicle.

"The incident was a mistake," Raoufi, the commander of all Afghan forces in the south, said in an interview with The Canadian Press through a translator.

"(But) the Canadian who shot our man must be punished according to Canadian army law."

The Canadians have apologized three times, he said.

      If the driver was passing the inner cordon and did not stop as directed then the canadian soldier had no choice but to react. Clearly the driver did not understand what he was doing. Yes, it was a mistake but it was the driver's mistake. It was an unfortunate incident so perhaps the Afghan general should use it to train his troops properly instead of hacking on ours for doing their job!

 

[Bigmac]

Link for full story below.

http://www.recorder.ca/cp/World/070215/w021540A.html

 

[geo]

Hmph...
Just goes to show.... officers shouldn't be driving (in any army).

There is no doubt that you can train and train and train but, when you start to do the real thing.... you're a little jumpy - loking out for yourself & your friends.

The Afghans admit, there were hand signals... they were either ignored OR misinterpreted.... I'm betting they were ignored.

 

[Armymedic]

The shooter should charged and be punished. He should be given extra training. My suggestion:

5 mins discussion in front of his peers on how he properly interpreted his ROEs and acted upon them.

The big FUBAR in this is that there was a lack of comms between inner and outer cordon.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Sounds like the break down in comms was the key event leading to the shooting.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Kids, kids,  careful with the speculation or sharing of insider stuff while it's still being looked into....

Trust us, General Raoufi - we do have systems in place to deal with people who (and this hasn't been proven at this point) don't follow the rules.

 

[seamus]

There are allot of information on the incident we are not privy to. But that being said, the driver still did not adhere to the instructions he was given while driving through the cordon. You could hypothesize everything that happened but in the end the driver was still at fault. When you pass through check points while driving anywhere, once you have gotten past the initial stop does this mean you can do what you please? We all know it doesn't.

 

[KevinB]

Point
It is Afghanistan, It was the Afghan National Army, WTF is the CF thinking about authorising members to fire on Allies.

Its one of those issues you have to accept when you work in a coalition.


I think the issue is one of incompetence.

 

[dapaterson]

Given the, ahem, "delightfully irregular" nature of ANA uniforms and vehicles, was the Cdn convoy even aware that the vehicle approaching was ANA?

 

[HItorMiss]

Point
It is Afghanistan, It was the Afghan National Army, WTF is the CF thinking about authorising members to fire on Allies.

I6,

I am surprised by this comment really, you have operated in this insurgent environment. I know for experience that more then one insurgent activity has been carried out in ANP/ANA uniforms (or what passes for uniforms) The answer is simple the vehicle broke cordon ignored all warning and the warning shot and then was fired apon, the shooter was well within his ROE's IMO. In his position I would have done the same thing.

 

[GAP]

I am sure the word will spread quickly to the ANA/ANP forces that a new roto is in town and don't count on being recognized.....follow instructions!!

 

[George Wallace]

Shall we leave all the speculation at the door and wait until the investigation is done and the facts are known. 

 

[KevinB]

HOM -- yes -- and as a result from the experiences in Afghan and Iraq -- I have accepted the fact that the enemy will get the first strike.


 I agree that its not always the right thing to second guess the troop on the ground.

 

[HItorMiss]

I6

You must agree then that given the circumstance whereing you maybe able to stop the first strike that one should take it no?

That is how I view this instance, but I agree that I could be looking at it through jaded eyes.

 

[McG]

Second guessing & analysis of application of ROEs by people not directly informed is unhelpful. 

In fact, my observation is that it is hurtful to the moral of the guys in Afghanistan & visiting the site.  They will know the truth but OPSEC will prevent their telling us.

For now, this thread is locked.