Aunt of Cdn. soldier killed in Afghan friendly fire incident awaits apology

THUNDER BAY, Ont. (CP) - The aunt of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in a friendly fire incident says she is disappointed with a recommendation that no charges be filed in the case.

A U.S. army investigator has recommended that the American machine-gunner who killed Pte. Robert Costall, 22, and a U.S soldier during a heated nighttime battle last year in Afghanistan not be charged. The recommendation is in documents released Tuesday in the deaths of Costall and Vermont National Guard 1st Sgt. John Thomas Stone.

Costall's aunt, Colleen McBain, says it's her understanding that no statements were taken from Canadian witnesses despite the fact it was Canadians who first indicated her nephew's death was the result of friendly fire.

McBain also told Thunder Bay, Ont., radio station CKPR in an interview that she is still waiting for an apology from the U.S. military.

"Apologies for the mistake, to my knowledge, haven't been issued from the U.S. military to the family members," she said. "We're just getting more and more disappointed, I suppose."

McBain also said she is anxious to know what steps are being taken to prevent such an incident from happening again.

"It's not going to bring my nephew back, but I want for the other soldiers over there now, how are they reassured that's not going to happen again?" she said.

Costall was a machine-gunner with 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. He was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., and grew up in Gibsons, B.C.

Stone, 52, of Tunbridge, Vt., was an embedded tactical trainer.

In the report, an American army investigator said their deaths, "while regrettable, are understandable in the context of this firefight."

The officer said Costall and 37 other Canadian soldiers were sent to reinforce Forward Operating Base Robinson for an expected Taliban attack on March 28, 2006.

They were moved into the field of fire of a machine-gunner, who was at a Special Forces compound inside the base.

Both Costall and Stone, who was on a roof, were hit by shots fired from within the Special Forces compound.

The U.S. documents released Monday marked the first official confirmation that friendly fire caused the deaths.

The Department of National Defence in Ottawa released a statement Tuesday saying: "The Canadian Forces acknowledges a recently released U.S. army report in regard to the death of Private Robert Costall killed in Afghanistan."

It notes the Canadian Forces convened an administrative Board of Inquiry and commenced an investigation within weeks of the 2006 incident.

It said the investigations have been completed and authorities are reviewing the findings.

While the U.S. army report recommended that no charges be filed, it also outlined a series of problems with the leadership overseeing the forward operating base, which had been set up about a month before Stone and Costall were killed.

There were serious supply problems, inadequate planning, communication and co-ordination between the different forces as well as the fatigue of the soldiers who had been under near daily attack and working hard to build the base, the report said.

It said the Canadians, who had been brought in after dark to help repel the attack and were fighting from a berm outside the camp gate, never told the Special Forces soldiers inside the compound where they were going to set up.

The Special Forces captain commanding Forward Operating Base Robinson had an "inadequate base defence plan" and there was an inadequate chain of command between the different forces present: the U.S. Special Forces and embedded tactical trainers, Canadian forces, Afghan National Army and Afghan security guards.

It also criticized the headquarters officers who had recently taken over responsibility for the base.

"Many of the base deficiencies noted in this investigation were immediately obvious," the report said. "Yet their new chain of command never visited in order to get the kind of situational awareness that 'walking the ground' can provide in order to assist with problem resolution and the correction of obvious deficiencies in base defence planning."

The report made a series of recommendations, including better overall command, base defence planning and better training of soldiers in the use of a variety of equipment, especially night vision, thermal imaging and laser devices.

Stone's companion Rose Loving says his death was the result of a series of mistakes by military commanders.

"There's a lot of things that led to this incident," Loving said Tuesday. "That fatigued soldier was the last one of the list of problems. To be fair to everyone, it is just a horrendous tragedy."