What happened during this blue on blue incident where Two soldiers were killed by tank fire?
What did the investigation determine the cause to be and could have IFF gear or the like have prevented this tragedy?
The British Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that two Britishtank crew were killed late Monday in "a friendly fire" incident near the Iraqi second largest city of Basra.
The soldiers were killed Monday night in a friendly fire incident from another British Challenger during a night battle with Iraqi forces on the outskirts of Basra, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
The two soldiers were from the Queen's Royal Lancers operating a Challenger II main battle tank, the spokesman said.
"It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defense has to confirm the death of Corporal Stephen John Allbutt, 35, and Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke, 19," he added.
Army chiefs investigating the incident have not disclosed whether the tank which fired the fatal shot was from the same regiment.
The Challenger II is the British Army's main battle tank and entered service in June 1998. Its advanced thermal imaging system, used to function at night, is regarded as the best in the world.
A second Blue on Blue from Afghanistan
If one views the documentary of the killing of the American football star, Pat Tillman" in Afghanistan, it shows how despite the very best of intentions, these things happen. Please to remember the brother of the fellow killed was in the very same unit and involved in that combat action during which Tillman died after being hit by .50 caliber fire from a Humvee trying to escape an ambush.
The chain of events in Tillman's death paint a situation where there was either mis-communication or no communication during a running gun battle between two Friendly units and two enemy units.
The documentary included interviews of many of the people in the unit who were involved in the action. It is heart breaking to listen to their accounts all the while knowing what the outcome was.
It should be a case study on how confusing things can be in combat despite thinking you know what the heck is going on when you really do not.
For those of you who are not familar withe what happened....
Convoy made up of two groups of Humvees and civilian vehicles are having to traverse a canyon with steep hills on either side. The road snakes back and forth along the narrow bottom of the canyon. The trailing half is stopped by a broken down civvie truck and the lead half drives on out of the canyon and is out of sight of the other part of the column. Bad guys on each side of the canyon kick off an ambush using RPG's and small arms fire to include light machine guns....the column under attack is blocked by the Civvie truck. After a bit....the civvie truck is moved to the side of the road and the column moves out towards the lead part of the column.
The lead column sees and hears tracers and gunfire but cannot see the other half of the unit in contact. They move to either side of the road on the hillsides leading up to the top of the two ridges and move to engage the ambushers. Tillman with an Afghani soldier go on the left side of the ridge as they face the direction of the ambush. These troops then engage the ambush just as the stopped column is making its way out. The vehicles are returning fire against the ambushers.
As the column passes Tillman's position (with the setting sun behind him and blinding the the vehicle gunners....the Afghani firing an AK engages the ambushers on the hillside near Tillman and himself. A Humvee gunner sees muzzle flashes and hears the sound of the AK being fired....directs his .50 Cal M2 fire towards that and kills both the Afghani and Tillman.
The column moving out of the valley while shooting their way out....did not know the other half of the unit was returning to their location to help break the ambush.