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Canadian commandos who were gunned down by Kurdish soldiers at a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Friday night had visited the same location earlier and arranged a series of code words to pave the way for their return that evening, a senior Canadian government official confirmed Sunday night.

The Canadians had already passed by a number of Kurdish locations using the codes without any problems. But when they came upon one checkpoint in the village of Bashiq, a Kurdish soldier instead opened fire on the group.

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Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron, 31, was killed. Three other Canadian special forces members from Petawawa were injured in what is being described as a friendly fire incident.

The details emerging Sunday night are in contrast to the version being told by the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, who have laid blame on the Canadians for the incident.

The Kurds claim the Canadians arrived unannounced at the checkpoint in an area that has seen heavy fighting the previous day with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).