friendly fire incident

[claude]

I'm sure there are a lot more incidents like this going on over there. This one got some press this side of the border since diplomats were involved and we tend to get worked up over these sorts of things.

A nasty shock in Iraq Canadian diplomat says soldiers fired on her SUV without warning; U.S. military disagrees By PAUL KORING

Thursday, February 2, 2006 Posted at 5:09 AM EST

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

WASHINGTON — Inside the white Envoy with a Maple Leaf flag plastered to the windshield, the first inkling that a routine daily trip for Canadian diplomats in Baghdad had gone nightmarishly wrong sounded like an explosion.

"It wasn't until we noticed the car was filled with gunpowder and dust and debris, and we looked around and saw the gunshots on the hood and the cracked windshield that we realized, 'oh crap, we were shot at,' " said Michelle Cameron, one of the four Canadians inside the SUV when a U.S. gunner opened fire on them inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad on Tuesday.

The U.S. military's version is starkly different and irreconcilable with the Canadian story of being fired on without warning or reason. A joint investigation to determine which version is correct is under way.

Ms. Cameron is a Ankara-based consular officer who has been in Baghdad working to free two Canadian peace activists held hostage by a shadowy Islamic group. She has provided the most detailed and only first-person account of how a routine trip turned suddenly into a near-fatal case of friendly fire as U.S. troops unleashed a machine gun burst at the Canadian vehicle.

As the dust settled and the shaken Canadians realized they were unhurt, a U.S. soldier approached. He asked whether everyone was okay, Ms. Cameron said.

"So we introduced him to the acting ambassador and he apologized."

In the car along with three other Canadians was chargé d'affaires Stewart Henderson.

"We just so weren't expecting the convoy to open up on us," Ms. Cameron said. She had been back in Baghdad for several weeks after spending a month there earlier, so she is familiar both with the dangers and the special driver etiquette required to operate safely in close proximity to heavily armed military convoys.

Diplomats and others stationed in the Green Zone, including the Canadians who were shot at Tuesday, go to a special driving school to learn how to behave around military convoys.

"Basically, you are learning how not to get shot," she said. "You have to take an orientation course in how to drive, then you have a week when you're a student driver riding as the passenger to an experienced driver, and then you take a two-hour driving test."

Until gunfire pierced the windshield, the trip had been unremarkable, she said.

After leaving the British embassy, where Canada's diplomats are housed while its new embassy is constructed, "we yielded to an oncoming convoy of five Humvees with gunners on the top," she said.

"This is a typical occurrence in the Green Zone. It happens fairly often. They passed, we proceeded through the traffic circle and followed them at a large distance. We [were] all travelling in the same direction. Nothing unusual . . . this happens every day, nothing new.

"About three to five minutes into the journey, they [the Humvees] turned to enter a forward operating base. So they turned left into a special lane for the forward operating base. . . . Like we do every day, we stay at 20 to 25 kilometres an hour and we continue on . . . and then all of a sudden we heard what we initially deemed an explosion."

Ms. Cameron and Mr. Henderson were in the back seat. Although the two front-seat occupants -- both Canadians and holders of diplomatic passports -- have not been identified, the driver is believed to be a Canadian soldier.

"Our driver had taken that course and he had been driving in the Green Zone for months, so immediately when the explosions rang out, while those of us in the back seat put our heads down as the shrapnel hit, our driver put on the brakes," Ms. Cameron said.

The white Envoy was travelling very slowly when it was hit by the gunfire. "It's interesting to note there were no skid marks, which gives you an idea of how slow we were going," she said.

The U.S. story is that the Canadian vehicle was speeding and tried to pass the U.S. convoy. Soldiers in the "rear vehicle of the convoy noticed a vehicle speeding toward the convoy," U.S. Marine Major Tim Keefe said yesterday from Baghdad. A soldier "gave hand signals to stay back," and when those were ignored he "fired a warning burst aimed at the front of the vehicle away from the passenger compartment," he said.

While the U.S. account portrays reckless driving that could reasonably have been interpreted as an unfolding suicide attack, Ms. Cameron's account, backed by other Canadian officials, paints an entirely different picture of trigger-happy Americans needlessly firing on a well-marked vehicle.

"From what I know, if the hand signals had been seen -- and I'm not saying the Americans didn't give them -- they would have been followed," said a Canadian embassy spokeswoman in Jordan.

"The Canadian ambassador's vehicle sustained damage from U.S. military gunfire yesterday afternoon in Baghdad, when it attempted to pass a U.S. military convoy after ignoring signals to stop," is the official version of events released by U.S. military in the Iraqi capital.

"The U.S. convoy vehicle defended itself by firing a three-round rifle burst."

"We know there are conflicting stories," said Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff, but she repeatedly declined to say whether the department backed the version of events given by its diplomats on the ground.

Prime-minister-designate Stephen Harper told an afternoon news conference that the Privy Council Office had kept him informed about the diplomatic fallout from the shooting in Baghdad.

"I understand there are some disagreements with what has occurred. Our officials are clear that they were operating within the rules," said Mr. Harper.

"I understand that there has been communication between the Chief of Defence Staff and American authorities to reflect our concerns and to make sure such events are avoided in the future. I also understand that there has been contact from the ambassador of the United States certainly expressing his regrets about the course of events."

In Washington, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "I wasn't there. I, obviously, don't know" what happened. "It's being investigated, and we'll see."

The Bush administration voiced regret but, so far, no official apology.

"We've talked to the Canadian government about this incident," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "It's regrettable."

With reports from Gloria Galloway in Ottawa and Mark MacKinnon in Jerusalem

[patricia]

We've been reading about incidents in the countryside in which ordinary civilians who have been killed by trigger-happy soldiers for months. I suppose when government officials or "important" people are involved, suddenly it's news. It will be interesting to see just how the occupants will be described as "suspected terrorists" in the official report.

[Scott Dolan]

Why not? It was suddenly news that that dude and his camera man were in the vicinity of a car bomb explosion.

The camera man being Canadian, let's not forget.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by patricia

I suppose when government officials or "important" people are involved, suddenly it's news.

In your case, it is news when Canadians are involved, patricia.

There have been worse incidents than this at checkpoints since day one of the war, much reported, and it was much worse earlier on. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

[claude]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

There have been worse incidents than this at checkpoints since day one of the war, much reported, and it was much worse earlier on. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

I guess that was my feeling after seeing the breathless reporting on this this morning. Sure it's serious and it appears that it is being dealt with appropriately.

There just seems to be this underlying unspoken story in all of the news coverage that the US army are a bunch of irresponsible drunken idiots out shooting up the countryside. Maybe they are, I don't know, but this one incident doesn't provide me with evidence of it.

[patricia]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

In your case, it is news when Canadians are involved, patricia.

There have been worse incidents than this at checkpoints since day one of the war, much reported, and it was much worse earlier on. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

Of course it's going to make me prick up my ears when Canadians are involved. Much as the war dead, when they are Americans, warrant mention by your media, while the many more Iraqis killed do not.

I agree that it was good that the Canadian envoy did not suffer any deaths in the incident. They were peppered with automatic gunshots, which I guess is what these soldiers do to warn an oncoming car to stop.
As you say, Monte, there have certainly been many, many more incidents of friendly fire incidents, or accidental killings of entire families who were apparently "suspected terrorists". That doesn't alter the fact that soldiers fire on vehicles and later describe the circumstances in such a way that they were not responsible for the deaths which often result.
If that is acceptable collateral damage in your estimation, I have nothing else to say.

[Monte Smith]

Whether it is acceptable or not, it is going to happen.

[GregM]

The ABC news anchor and cameramen were hit by unfriendly fire.

Getting hit by fire (friendly and unfriendly) is part of what being in a warzone is all about, yet the press seems to be constantly shocked at this concept.

[Scott Dolan]

Exactly.