US helicopter killed British soldier in Afghanistan

This video is called Wikileaks: Canadian soldiers ‘killed’ in friendly fire.

From the Press Association in Britain:

‘Failures’ led to UK soldier death

Friday 7th September 2012

A 23-year-old soldier who was killed when a US Apache helicopter fired on a British base in Afghanistan died as a result of “mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures”, a coroner has ruled.

Lance Corporal Christopher Roney, from Sunderland, died from head injuries at Patrol Base Almas in Sangin on December 21 2009.

After a five-day hearing, Sunderland Coroner Derek Winter listed a series of errors made leading up to the tragedy.

He ruled: “L/Cpl Christopher Roney died as a consequence of assumptions made, mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures by friendly forces to appropriately assess the totality of their situational awareness in respect of the ongoing events at and in the vicinity of Patrol Base Almas on December 21 2009. The deployment and use by friendly forces of attack helicopters was done in circumstances that ought to have been assessed by them to conclude sooner than they did that their target was not an enemy force and that the attack should be aborted.”

L/Cpl Roney, of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, died from head injuries he suffered while manning a position at Patrol Base Almas, in Sangin, Helmand, on December 21 2009.

As night fell, the base was rocked by a huge Taliban bomb and the platoon based there were fighting off an attack when, without their knowledge, two US gunships were called in to help. But one fired 200 rounds into the base – despite the flagpole, machine gun, barbed wire and men in uniform – as the air crews believed it was an enemy position and carried out two strafing runs.

There was harrowing evidence from soldiers on the ground, who could not understand where the devastating onslaught was coming from. Senior British Army staff – not based in Almas – liaised with the Apaches and mistakes were made when the crews were given a series of grid references and told there were no friendly forces in the vicinity. There was also confusion over pictures relayed from two cameras – one of which was mounted on an unmanned drone.

Statements from the four unnamed pilots and co-pilots were read out during the inquest. The coroner heard tales of heroism as comrades raced to help the seven badly injured soldiers – the most serious casualty being L/Cpl Roney, who was married to Lorna and whose son William was then five months old. He was flown to Camp Bastion but could not survive his terrible injuries and died the next day.

U.S. to Retain Role as a Jailer in Afghanistan: here.

Overnight on August 30, an Afghan army sergeant shot dead three Australian soldiers at an Afghan National Army patrol base in the Oruzgan province of Afghanistan. A helicopter crash that killed two more soldiers made the day the deadliest for Australia’s forces since the Vietnam War: here.

Almost two and half years ago, I wrote about the murder of Abdul Manan Gul Rehman in a CIA black site facility known as the Salt Pit in Afghanistan. The news that he had been killed was received eight years after the fact: here.

US Military: Oops, we lost $475 million worth of records: here.

Johnny Barber, War Is a Crime: “On the streets of Kabul it is not unusual to see burqa-clad women clutching starving children, begging for spare change. Poverty and hunger is even worse in Kandahar and Helmand, areas that have seen some of the most intense fighting of the war…. In America, 35 million people are hungry or do not know where their next meal is coming from and 13 million of them are children. Who benefits from the ‘War on Terror?'” Here.