US Troops fire on Canadian Convoy and diplomat in Baghdad

[Joeaksa]

What part of stop do people not understand. First it was the Italian car with the journalist on board, now the Canadians.

Glad no one was hurt but when a soldier with a weapon says to stop at a checkpoint, its probably a good idea to stop!

JA

Troops Fire on Canadian Convoy

Associated Press | February 01, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops fired on a Canadian diplomatic convoy that failed to obey signals to stop in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, but there were no injuries, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

A spokeswoman at the Canadian Embassy in neighboring Jordan said four Canadian diplomats, including the charge d'affairs, were traveling in one of the vehicles.

"We are aware of this incident and the American and Canadian authorities are looking into it," said the spokeswoman, who declined to be named in keeping with embassy policy.

The shooting occurred when the troops tried to stop a convoy of cars approaching them in the Green Zone, the base of numerous foreign missions and the Iraqi government, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

"But the convoy continued to approach and failed to stop, and the soldiers fired warning rounds at the front of the vehicles, resulting in no injuries," Johnson said.

The Canadian government does not have an embassy in Iraq, but is expected to open one later this year, said the spokeswoman from the Canadian Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Canadian diplomats regularly travel between Iraq and Jordan.

Johnson said an investigation was underway "to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,86807,00.html

[TheMentat]

It sounds to me that the convoy could/did not see any instruction to stop where they were (which could have been 100 yards back from the checkpoint for all we know). But it sounds like they stopped after the warning shots...

Don't get me wrong... I understand that these guys are working under tough conditions and accidents do happen, but I'm not sure I'd be so quick to lay the blame on the Canadians in this case. Sounds to me that the US military is trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again, which implies that there might be something wrong with the way they're doing things.