Two American F-16 pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan in April, killing four soldiers and injuring eight, are solely to blame for the incident, a Canadian military panel has announced, echoing the conclusion of a joint Canada-US probe.
"It's the opinion of the board that the pilots...were the two individuals who were a position to stop the chain of events that caused the deaths of our soldiers and that is why we say unequivocally that they are the cause of the accident," retired General Maurice Baril, Canada's former Chief of Defense Staff, told reporters.
Baril said the actions of the pilots "represented a failure of airmanship and technique of the wingman and a failure of leadership of the flight leader."
Canadian troops were not to blame in any way for the incident during the evening of April 17, when members of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, were conducting a night live-fire training exercise on the ground near Kandahar airport, officials said.
The four Canadian soldiers were bombed when one of two US F-16 fighter jet pilots dropped a 500-pound (226.8 kilogram) laser-guided bomb on the the Princess Patricia soldiers.
Another report by the Canada-US Coalition Investigation Board (CIB), details of which were released in Tampa, Florida, on Friday, said the Americans had failed "to exercise appropriate flight discipline, which resulted in the violation of the rules of engagement and an inappropriate use of lethal force."
The CIB report also found that "failings within the pilots' immediate command structures, while not causing the incident, were contributing factors."
The bombing of the Canadian troops was among the deadliest "friendly fire" incidents of the nine-month war in Afghanistan.
It also marked the first time that Canadian soldiers, other than U.N, peacekeepers, had died in a combat zone since the Korean War.