Friendly fire from a U.S. F-16 killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight others about 15 km (9 miles) south of the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan.

The dead soldiers are:

• Sgt. Marc Leger, 29, Lancaster, Ontario
• Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, 24, Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario
• Pte. Richard Green, 21, Mill Cove, Nova Scotia
• Pte. Nathan Smith, 27, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia

The bodies of the four dead arrived at CFB Trenton, Ontario, on Saturday morning, April 20.

Six of the injured were first evacuated to a U.S. military medical facility in Ramstein, Germany. They arrived back in Edmonton on Tuesday, April 23. Two soldiers who were only slightly injured stayed in Kandahar.

The U.S. fighter jet was on a nighttime training exercise when it dropped one or possibly two bombs on the Canadians. The Canadians themselves were on a ground training exercise, but the U.S. jet was not involved in it. Canadian Chief of Defence Staff General Ray Henault said the cause of the accident was probably "misidentification."

The Canadians were members of Edmonton's 3rd Battalion of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group (3 PPCLI). The 3 PPCLI Battle Group has been in Afghanistan since late January.

General Henault said the Canadian deaths were the first in an offensive operation since the Korean War.

The Americans have offered support to the Canadian authorities in an investigation of what Prime Minister Chrétien called a "terrible accident."