A Canadian military inquiry is investigating the causes of the U.S. friendly fire accident in which a U.S. F-16 dropped a bomb killing four Canadians and wounding eight others in Afghanistan. Retired General Maurice Baril, former Chief of the Defence Staff, heads the military inquiry, which will also make recommendations to help prevent similar friendly fire accidents in the future.

The members of the military inquiry arrived in Kandahar April 29 and began investigating the Tarnak Farm training area where the bombing accident took place. They immediately started interviewing Canadian and American witnesses.

The five-person board of the military inquiry will produce an interim report by the middle of May and a final report by the third week in June. Reports are to be given to the Canadian Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister through the Chief of the Defence Staff.

A Canadian, Brigadier-General Marc Dumais, is co-chair of the U.S. review board set up to investigate the same friendly fire accident.

The Canadian military inquiry will investigate:

• the cause and circumstances of the Canadian injuries and deaths
• the planning, operation and safety procedures of the live fire exercise
• coordination between Canadians and Americans with respect to the exercise
• coordination between ground and air forces surrounding the bombing incident
• the response to the incident

The military inquiry will make recommendations on:

• the conduct of live fire exercises
• coordination between ground and air forces during live fire exercises
• coordination of multinational communications during live fire exercises
• safety
• measures to prevent friendly fire accidents in the future
• any other actions or recommendations that should be taken