Friendly fire kills 18 Kurds

A US warplane bombed American special forces and their Kurdish allies on Sunday, killing at least 18 people in a 8216;8216;friendly fire...

A US warplane bombed American special forces and their Kurdish allies on Sunday, killing at least 18 people in a 8216;8216;friendly fire8217;8217; attack in northern Iraq, witnesses and Kurdish sources said.

A senior Kurdish official said 18 Kurds were killed and over 45 wounded, including the brother of Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP leader Massoud Barzani. 8216;8216;The latest count I have for you from the Kurdish peshmerga fighters side is 18 people killed and over 45 injured,8217;8217; said Hoshiyar Zebari, political adviser to Barzani.

He said a US jet bombed a convoy of American special forces and Kurdish fighters as it paused near an area recently captured from Iraqi forces not far from the town of Kalak. The US Military said it was investigating the incident, which occurred 48 km southeast of the northern city of Mosul. The BBC8217;s World Affairs editor John Simpson said he was travelling in a convoy of eight or 10 cars when it came under air attack. Zebari said his list of dead included a translator working with the BBC team.

8216;8216;This is just a scene from hell here, all the vehicles are on fire, there are bodies burning, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground,8217;8217; said Simpson, who was slightly hurt in the blast. Simpson said US special forces had called in the airstrike themselves, ordering an overhead plane to take out an Iraqi tank which was about 1.5 km down the road. For some reason, the plane hit the wrong target. 8216;8216;I saw the bomb coming out of one of the planes, just one bomb and then extraordinarily I saw it as it came down beside me. It was painted white and red and it crashed into the ground about 4 metres from where I was standing,8217;8217; he said.

In a statement, the United States Military said: 8216;8216;Coalition aircraft were conducting close air support missions at the time, and were in coordination with ground forces. The circumstances contributing to the incident are under investigation.8217;8217; Reuters