US friendly fire kills British soldiers in Afghanistan

US friendly fire kills British soldiers in Afghanistan

www.guardian.co.uk

Three British soldiers have been killed in an apparent friendly fire incident involving US aircraft in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today.

The patrol was attacked by Taliban insurgents and air support was summoned in the form of two US F15 aircraft. One bomb was dropped, apparently killing the three soldiers. They were declared dead at the scene.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
news.bbc.co.uk
uk.reuters.com
www.cnn.com




[edit on 24/8/2007 by nickh]

Now I find this hard to believe... surely the communications in this day-and-age should be good enough to avoid instances like this. Apparently not..

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

You have to remember,
It's easy to mistake us for a member for the Taleban. The Union Jack can be quite confusing.

Blue on blue happens, as much as the military doesn't like to admit it. Modern, fast communications can help it happen in some cases.

[edit on 24/8/2007 by watch_the_rocks]

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
Blue on blue happens, as much as the military doesn't like to admit. Modern, fast communications can help it happen in some cases.

Yes, but why so frequently?
news.bbc.co.uk...
www.ctv.ca...

Now i'm not wanting to apportion blame but surely in this day and age we should be able to eliminate this.
I'm sure some of the military experts on ats will be able to explain why this appears to be so common?

That story doesn't give very many details at all, the friendly fire was probably directed exactly to where it was called in which wouldn't put them at fault at all. My guess is that one wary or another this mistake lands on the guys who called in the strike. Need more details to know exactly what happened, the story hardly tells us anything.

Wouldnt be surprised if this was true, its happened so many times before. Although I havnt heard it on any other news website yet?

Originally posted by OzWeatherman
Wouldnt be surprised if this was true, its happened so many times before. Although I havnt heard it on any other news website yet?

it's all over the British press sites, France 24, Al Jazeera and other European news sites too.

Skynews and BBC 24 have coverage.

Don't expect it on any American news sites though

reply to post by infinite


Yep... I've updated the original post with some more sources (BBC, CNN, Reuters).

At some point the British are going to have to ask themselves, with friends like this who needs enemies?

Hopefully things like this will give the UK pause before it signs on for any new misadventures with us in Iran.

Originally posted by xmotex
Hopefully things like this will give the UK pause before it signs on for any new misadventures with us in Iran.

I don't think we will be setting up camp in Iran any time soon, the public would probably riot and it will be a while until we decided to take part in any democracy tour in the Middle East.

Tragic. What's interesting here is that I don't recall US forces being killed by other allied troops**, it is typically the other way around. Granted there are a lot more US troops in operation. Some of the more hawkish here on ATS will simply write this off as the fog of war but still there needs to be some accountability. There are so many past cases of US military carelessness and even more disgusting the episodes are made light of. I guess thats to be expected when those who hand down punishment are also the US military. Nothing bias about that. How about an independent investigation.

** - unless of course your name is Pat Tillman, then its just whitewashed in the name of progress.

brill

[edit on 24-8-2007 by brill]

I can only recall one or two incidents of UK-UK blue on blue and that was during the invasion when two Chally's set upon each other.

There was also a soldier who was killed by UK fire whilst he single handedly stormed a Taleban position. Ironically, after taking out the enemy on his own, he was taken out by his comrades who were also firing on the position. I believe he was given a VC...

Both of those examples are typical "Fog of War" incidents and can, to some extent, be excused.

However, there does seem to be a propensity for US forces, especially the USAF, to blow their Allies up. This is the latest in a long list of US forces killing British forces.

An investigation is being carried out.

Hopefully, this time, the US has the manners to turn up to the inquiry and doesn't refuse to hand over information.

I believe he was given a VC...

He was.

[edit on 24-8-2007 by infinite]

I accept that FF does happen and will probably always happen. My issue is with the US not handing over evidence of the incidents or allowing their military personal to be held accountable for their actions - they can just carry on as normal. Has any US military personal ever been sent to another country to answer for themselves or does the DoD just build a wall around every case?

Looking at the other side, do those who have been responsible for friendly fire get support themselves? I'm sure it's got to be a pretty crappy feeling to know what you have done. So are they allowed to talk to anyone or are they drummed into keeping it under wraps?

[edit on 24/8/2007 by Muppetus Galacticus]

Sems everyone is very quick to nudge without really knowing anything about what happened. It is quite possible that the Brits accidentally called the bomb onto their own position, by supplying the wrong coordinates to the plane. This happened in 2001 at Qali-jangi prison when US SF gave the plane the wrong GPS coordinates.

Someone asked why does it always seem lie US planes bomb friendlies. Simple the US carries out 99% of air strikes. If the Brits conducted the same level of air operations, they would have blue on blues as well.

Originally posted by Muppetus Galacticus
Looking at the other side, do those who have been responsible for friendly fire get support themselves? I'm sure it's got to be a pretty crappy feeling to know what you have done. So are they allowed to talk to anyone or are they drummed into keeping it under wraps?

I presume that the mental health clinics that the army have are frequented by soldiers who have done things like this - amongst other things, although I am just guessing.

[edit on 24/8/2007 by nickh]

Originally posted by Muppetus Galacticus
I accept that FF does happen and will probably always happen. My issue is with the US not handing over evidence of the incidents or allowing their military personal to be held accountable for their actions - they can just carry on as normal. Has any US military personal ever been sent to another country to answer for themselves or does the DoD just build a wall around every case?

The last inquiry created quite a storm in the UK, especially when the cockpit video was released. The "cowboy" like attitude made the UK public blood boil.

The US military was heavily criticised for acting like it was above international law by not handing over evidence or by sending the personal over.

Correct me if I was wrong, but I think the inquiry concluded that the US personal were guilty and should of faced criminal charges.

Originally posted by infinite
The last inquiry created quite a storm in the UK, especially when the cockpit video was released. The "cowboy" like attitude made the UK public blood boil.

The US military was heavily criticised for acting like it was above international law by not handing over evidence or by sending the personal over.

Correct me if I was wrong, but I think the inquiry concluded that the US personal were guilty and should of faced criminal charges.

I believe you're right. I think the coroner declared it a criminal and unlawful killing and blamed the Pentagon for burying evidence.

[edit on 24/8/2007 by Muppetus Galacticus]

Originally posted by rogue1
Sems everyone is very quick to nudge without really knowing anything about what happened. It is quite possible that the Brits accidentally called the bomb onto their own position, by supplying the wrong coordinates to the plane. This happened in 2001 at Qali-jangi prison when US SF gave the plane the wrong GPS coordinates.

That also happened in Northern Iraq during the invasion. BBC reporter John Simpson narrowly escaped death when the US SF he was with called down an air strike on themselves. Unfortunately, they and his translator died in the attack.

Originally posted by rogue1
Someone asked why does it always seem lie US planes bomb friendlies. Simple the US carries out 99% of air strikes. If the Brits conducted the same level of air operations, they would have blue on blues as well.

Granted, the US carries out alot of the Air Strikes, but 99% I suspect is you exaggerating there.