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Warning Shot Through Your Windshield
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» neoform replied on Wed Feb 1, 2006 @ 11:48am |
 Coolness: 339675 | [ sympaticomsn.ctv.ca ]
Four Canadian diplomats, including the charge d'affaires to Iraq, escaped injury Tuesday when their vehicle was shot at in Baghdad by U.S. soldiers. All four, including Stewart Henderson -- Canada's charge d'affaires in Iraq, were travelling in the same vehicle when they came under fire. A spokesman for the U.S. forces in Iraq said warning shots were fired at the Canadian envoy's car when it apparently attempted to pass an American military convoy. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said the U.S. troops were driving within the heavily fortified Green Zone when they signalled to a convoy of cars approaching them to stop. "But the convoy continued to approach and failed to stop, and the soldiers fired warning rounds at the front of the vehicles, resulting in no injuries," Johnson said. "After checking, it was found that the vehicles belonged to the Canadian Embassy." However, Canadian consular official Michelle Cameron, who was travelling in the vehicle at the time of the incident, told a different story. Cameron told CTV News that the Canadian convoy was keeping a good distance and that no one in her vehicle saw any hand signals from the Americans to indicate they were too close. She also said the three shots fired were not a warning and that one of the bullets went right through the windshield and narrowly missed a passenger. "How many warning shots go across a vehicle into the passenger compartment?," Cameron told CTV News. None of the four passengers or the driver were injured. CTV's Tom Clark, reporting from Washington, said there are "two completely different versions of events -- one from the Americans and one from the Canadian eyewitnesses." Clark said the Canadians were travelling from the British residence to the Canadian residence -- "a trip they have made hundreds of times before." "They were all trained on how to drive in the Green Zone," he told CTV Newsnet Wednesday. "They (the Canadians) said that they stayed well back and were travelling slowly, and as they passed by the tail end of the (American) convoy ... the tail gunner pulled the trigger, ripped off three rounds." Investigation Canadian and U.S. officials are investigating the incident. "It's certainly under review, to see what procedures, what steps were taken and who made a mistake, to make sure this wouldn't happen again," Johnson said. If vehicles fail to respond to hand signals followed by warning shots, "shots may be fired at the vehicle," he added. He also noted that military convoys carry markings warning that the common procedure is not to pass, a precaution against suicide bombers. A spokeswoman for the Canadian Embassy in neighbouring Jordan also confirmed an investigation was underway. "We are aware of this incident and the American and Canadian authorities are looking into it," she told The Associated Press Wednesday. Canada has no embassy in Iraq and diplomatic officials regularly travel to Iraq from Jordan. The Green Zone is a heavily fortified area in the centre of Baghdad where Iraqi government offices are located and where the U.S. military has its headquarters. |
Warning Shot Through Your Windshield
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