Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 5, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press tuesday september 5, 2006 winnipegfreepress.coma3 top news Friendly fire claims Canadian . Jets mistakenly attack troops dozens Hurt by Donald Mcarthur k Kandahar Afghanistan ? a Canadian Soldier was killed and dozens wounded five seriously when two . Fighter jets ? called in for close air support ? mistakenly strafed them with Cannon fire yester Day morning near the front lines of a Battle where four Canadian soldiers died and several were wounded the Day before. Stretcher after Stretcher ferried the wounded into the beleaguered Hospital at Kandahar air Field As . David Fraser and the military a chaplain rushed to the scene to offer their sup port. Some soldiers limped gingerly into the Hospital under their own Power As opera Tion Medusa the coalition Offen Sive that has left More than 200 insurgents dead began its third private Mark Day on an Omi Anthony Graham Nous note. Canadian troops taking on tenacious Taliban insurgents near their stronghold on the Banks of the Arghan dab River in the Panjwani area called in close air sup port about 5 30 . And were wrongly targeted from above by a pair of . A?10 thunderbolts commonly known As warthogs. We do have communications we do have training and tactics and techniques and procedures to mitigate the risk but we can to reduce those risks to Zero. When something like this does happen we be got to find out the facts and we be got to go investigate it said Fraser. An investigation has been ordered into this event and while this event is tragic operation Medusa and the canadians continue to operate in the Panjwani District in support of afghan govern ment efforts to rid the area of five of the soldiers wounded in the lat est Friendly fire incident were trans ported in stable condition yesterday evening to Lan Stuhl Hospital in Ger Many along with two Canadian soldiers injured in close combat the Day before. The other wounded soldiers Are expected to return to duty shortly. The Soldier killed yesterday ? the 13th since aug. 3 ? was pet. Mark Anthony Graham a member of 1st battalion Royal Canad an regiment based at Canadian forces base Petawawa. At the 1992 Barcelona games Canada a 4x400 team of Graham Mark Jack son Anthony Wilson and Freddie Williams finished fourth in their first heat and failed to Advance to the next round. In 1993, Graham told the Calgary her Ald he started to run in Grade 8, but Only began to take his Hobby seriously after watching the 1988 olympics in Seoul on television. Graham met Calgary track coach John Cannon after his participation in Barcelona eventually moving to Calgary twice to train with the coach. Warrant officers Richard Francis Nolan and Frank Robert Mellish and sgt. Shane Stachnik All based at Cana Dian forces base Petawawa West of Ottawa were killed sunday As insurgents disabled multiple Canadian vehicles with Small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. The name of the fourth Canadian Soldier killed Sun Day has not been released at his family a request. Stachnik a 30-year-old Engineer originally from Waskatenau alta.,was recently engaged and planned to be mar ried when he returned Home from the latest in a string of overseas missions. Thirty two Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since Canada joined the War on terror Here in 2002 and 24 of those have fallen since operations moved to the volatile South in february. Glyn Berry a Diplomat was killed in a suicide strike in Kandahar in january. Despite heavy coalition losses including the deaths of 14 British soldiers sat urday in a plane crash blamed on technical problems Fraser said nato forces were still confident and still achieving Success on the no updated insurgent casualty figures were released yesterday but nato said a Day earlier that More than 200 Mili Tants had been killed 80 suspected insurgents had been captured and about 180 had fled the scene of the fighting. ? can West news service ;