U.S. Convoy Under Friendly Fire

[thedrifter]

Report: U.S. Convoy Under Friendly Fire

LONDON - A U.S. warplane bombed a convoy carrying U.S. Special Forces and Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq (news - web sites) on Sunday, killing several men, according to a BBC reporter with the troops.


Correspondent John Simpson said he counted at least 10 bodies amid the burning vehicles.


"An American plane dropped the bomb right beside us. I saw it land about 10 feet away," Simpson told BBC television. He did not disclose his location.


Associated Press Television Network showed pictures of the bombing, near the town of Makhmur, in Kurdish territory about halfway between the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.


Simpson, the BBC's World Affairs Editor, said the convoy contained between eight and 10 cars, two of which carried U.S. Special Forces troops.


The BBC said Simpson had been wounded in the leg by shrapnel. His translator was seriously injured, and so was a senior Kurdish political figure, he said.


"This is just a scene from hell here," Simpson said. "All the vehicles are on fire, there are bodies burning all around me, bits of bodies all around. ... The Americans saw this convoy and they bombed it. They hit their own people."


A Pentagon (news - web sites) duty officer, Master Sgt. Grant Windsor, initially appeared to confirm the incident and read a statement from U.S. Central Command that said three Americans were killed and five others wounded in the bombing.


Central Command in Doha, Qatar, questioned the report, and it was subsequently learned that Windsor had been referring to a Central Command statement about a separate incident on April 3.


Lt. Mark Kitchens, a Central Command spokesman, suggested there were two friendly fire incidents involved and would not confirms the details of the attack reported Sunday by the BBC.


"With regards to this friendly fire incident you're referring to now, we don't have anything to confirm," he said. "We've heard these reports. We're looking into it."

Sempers,

Roger