OTTAWA — Canada's top soldier backtracked Wednesday on his earlier assertions that a beaten and bloodied Afghan was never detained by Canadian troops before he was transferred to local authorities.

Gen. Walter Natynczyk has ordered an investigation into the incident, to find out why he was not told for more than three years and to examine a soldier's assertion that Afghan police had assaulted previous Taliban suspects.

"I want to correct my statement," Natynczyk, Canada's chief of defence staff, told a news conference in Ottawa. "The individual who was beaten by Afghan police was, in fact, in Canadian custody."

Natynczyk said he was reversing himself after hearing for the first time Wednesday morning from the section commander who was at the scene of the June 14, 2006, incident.

The commander reported how one of three men in a white van stopped by Canadian soldiers was deemed a suspected enemy Taliban on the basis of his accent and a "false" claim he was from Kandahar City.

Natynczyk said the soldier's statement recounted how he had the suspect empty his pockets and lie down on his stomach and how he catalogued all the items and took down his particulars.

"We then photographed the individual prior to handing him over to ensure that if the Afghan National Police did assault him, as had happened in the past, that we would have a visual record of his condition," the general read from the report of what happened at the scene.

When the Canadians checked an unspecified amount of time later, they found a group of police beating the suspect with shoes and intervened and took him away for medical attention. Natynczyk said he had a scrape on his face.

The case has been cited by opposition MPs as evidence that Defence Minister Peter MacKay misled Canadians by saying there is no credible evidence of abuse of even one detainee transferred by Canadians to Afghan authorities.

Natynczyk told reporters a board of inquiry, comprising military officials of different ranks, would investigate the matter and interview everyone involved. Other military officials had reported to him that the man had not been in Canadian custody. He wanted a board report "fast, fast."

On Parliament Hill, Gordon O'Connor, the defence minister at the time, also told reporters he had been informed at the time that "this was not a Canadian detainee" but "our solders observed the way the Afghans were talking about this detainee, they were worried that he might get some abuse."

It was not clear whether O'Connor knew of the general's new information when he spoke to reporters.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the development "proves that it's time for a public inquiry. We've had one story, then another."

"We've said that we would welcome a public inquiry that went back to the period when the Liberal government was in office," Ignatieff said. "This is not a partisan matter. This is about the capacity of the Canadian Armed Forces to comply with their Geneva Convention obligations."

Asked if he thought the Geneva Convention had been violated, Natynczyk said it is premature for him to make such an assessment because "I don't know what those soldiers knew on the ground."

On Tuesday, when appearing at the House of Commons defence committee, Natynczyk contradicted the affidavit of Col. Steve Noonan, Canada's first commander of the Kandahar Task Force, who had said that a Canadian captive was beaten by Afghan police before Canadian soldiers rescued him in June 2006 and took him back to give him medical treatment.

In the Commons, MacKay attempted to brush aside the opposition critics by citing Natynczyk's May 2007 statement and his testimony to the committee denying the man had been captured by Canadian troops.

With files from Andrew Mayeda and David Akin (Canwest News Service)

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service