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(See video at end of story) BAGRAM, Afghanistan — A 200-pound bomb dropped from a U.S. warplane can end a firefight in a heartbeat. That same bomb, however, slightly off target, can be tragic for troops on the ground. The margin of error, the difference between helping allies and making a horrific mistake, is microscopically thin for pilots thousands of feet in the air. Bad judgment, poor communication or both can alter fate in seconds. Pilots with the Spangdahlem, Germany-based 81st Fighter Squadron know the risks all too well. When the squadron last deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, a pilot...

This is an extraordinary series on over here at the moment which shows extremely closeup, the fight our folks are in. Fastforward to 7:20 as he speaks to 5 platoon, who had recently lost three soldiers in a blue on blue incident where an American plane had dropped a bomb on some of our guys. They are asked of what they think of the Americans. The response they give may surprise you. All the more incredible, consider some of these guys have lost their best friends in these incidents. Please take the time to watch this, it is facinating. Some...

The Hague - Dutch armed forces Commander Dick Berlijn has announced that the two Dutch soldiers who died in Uruzgan on Saturday were killed by friendly fire. The soldiers did not realise they were firing on each other due to darkness and bad weather. Two Afghan soldiers who were killed later that evening were also shot dead by Dutch soldiers. They were mistaken for Taliban fighters because they were not in uniform. At the time, the Dutch soldiers were assisting an injured colleague whose legs will have to be amputated. The two deaths bring the Dutch death toll since the...

Monday, 10 December 2007 Multi-National Corps – IraqPublic Affairs Office, Camp VictoryAPO AE 09342FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASERELEASE No. 20071210-06December 10, 20075 Iraqi detainees killed in rocket attackMulti-National Division – Baghdad PAOFORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq – Five Iraqi detainees were killed and 25 others wounded when insurgents launched a rocket attack in the Rusafa district of eastern Baghdad Dec. 10.    Reports indicate nine 122mm rockets were fired with at least one of them hitting a detainee holding area on a forward operating base.  Coalition Forces sealed off the area.  An investigation into the attack is underway.-30-FOR QUERIES, CONTACT MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION...

Sergeant First Class Arno J. Voigt was killed by friendly fire near Khe Sanh, Republic of Vietnam on June 4, 1970, and like all friendly fire accidents it was one of those things that shouldn’t have happened but did. A Pink Team consisting of an OH-6 Cayuse Light Observation Helicopter (Loach) and three AH-1G Cobra Gun Ships from the 2d Squadron 17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division mistook Arno Voigt and a company of ARVN Airborne Rangers for a company of NVA and fired on them, killing Arno Voigt along with two Rangers and wounding an additional twenty Rangers. This is...

<p>December 7, 2001 -- Human error is being probed as the likely cause of the tragic friendly-fire bombing that left three Green Berets dead and 19 others injured, officials said yesterday.</p> <p>Pentagon officials told The Post the wrong coordinates were fed into the guidance system of the 2,000-pound bomb that hit the Kandahar headquarters of Afghanistan's newly appointed leader Wednesday.</p>

<p>A Tennessean was among the three U.S. Special Forces soldiers killed in Afghanistan yesterday when a U.S. bomb missed its Taliban target. The Pentagon identified those killed as Master Sgt. Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, of Watauga, near Johnson City, Tenn.; Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Petithory, 32, of Cheshire, Mass.; and Staff Sgt. Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of California. All were members of the Army's 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, stationed at Fort Campbell. The bomb, carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives, landed about 100 yards from the soldiers' position north of Kandahar, where the Taliban is making its last stand against Afghan opposition forces. Nineteen other American soldiers were injured, and five Afghan fighters were killed. Davis, a Green Beret sergeant, lived in Clarksville with his wife, Mi Kyong Davis, and two children, Christina, 14, and Jessie, 10. His parents, William Lon and Linda Davis, were driving 340 miles from their home in Watauga to Clarksville to be with their daughter-in-law and grandchildren and were not available for comment last night. At the Davis home, less than two miles from Fort Campbell, dozens of people dropped by to pay their condolences, including members from the First Korean Presbyterian Church who arrived in a van after midweek church services. The church members brought food and were seen hugging others inside the home. Most of the visitors declined to comment at the request of the family. One friend simply said Davis' widow was resting after an emotional day, and the family would probably make a statement today. Another said Mi Kyong Davis' parents were expected to arrive from Korea by today. A military family who lives nearby lowered the American flag in front of their home to half-staff and said they were too upset by the news to talk. Cousin Penny McCracken told the Johnson City Press Davis was a career military man and his family was proud of his service. ''He was always a good guy,'' she said. The newspaper reported Davis was a 1981 graduate of Elizabethton High School, where he played football and basketball. He also played football while attending Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C. He later studied nursing at East Tennessee State University. Petithory grew up in Cheshire, Mass., a town of 3,600 in the Berkshire Mountains near the Vermont border. ''He served his country, and he did what he thought was right,'' said Carol Francesconi, a member of the Board of Selectmen in the town. Pentagon officials said they could not yet explain what went wrong in the deadliest ''friendly fire'' accident of the war. Whatever the cause, it illustrated the danger inherent in the kind of support U.S. forces are providing to Afghan fighters: calling in airstrikes on nearby enemy positions. ''This is one of the potentially most hazardous type of missions that we use as a military tactic,'' said Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A forward air controller among the U.S. troops involved in the incident called for close air support, and an Air Force B-52 bomber responded by launching a bomb known as a Joint Direct Attack Munition, he said. The bomb is guided by a satellite navigation system and is considered one of the most accurate weapons in the U.S. arsenal. It was used for the first time in combat in Kosovo in 1999. Stufflebeem and other Pentagon officials said investigators would try to determine whether the bomb missed the intended target because of mechanical or human error. ''A two-thousand-pound weapon is a devastating weapon,'' he said. ''As a pilot, I can do everything perfectly with a perfect weapon system and still cannot account for every weapon going exactly where it's supposed to go. And that's just a fact of unfortunate life here in this case.'' All casualties were evacuated from the scene, first to a U.S. Marine base south of Kandahar and then out of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, the southern Pashtun leader and newly designated head of the provisional government in Afghanistan, was in the area where the bomb landed but was not seriously wounded, Pentagon officials said. ''I, along with the rest of America, grieve for the loss of life in Afghanistan,'' President Bush said from the Oval Office. ''I want the families to know that they died for a noble and just cause.'' The deaths bring to four the number of Americans killed inside Afghanistan in the two-month war. CIA officer Johnny ''Mike'' Spann was killed Nov. 25 in a prison uprising while questioning forces captured in the fighting.</p>

OTTAWA (CP) - Most of the countries fighting in Afghanistan are comparing technology and ideas this week in the Nevada and California deserts in the first large-scale multinational effort to reduce friendly fire casualties. Canada's contribution to the demonstration involves three CF-18 fighter jets, a contingent of soldiers and fighting vehicles from 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont. It comes just a few weeks after investigations in both Canada and the United States determined better training, equipment and co-ordination could have prevented the accidental strafing of a company of Canadian soldiers last year. The split-second mistake, by...

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan - Investigations were under way Saturday into the killing of three British soldiers in a bomb dropped by a US fighter jet and intended for Afghanistan’s Taleban rebels. The “friendly fire” incident in the southern province of Helmand late Thursday was one of the deadliest in a string of such mistakes in the intensifying international campaign against the Al Qaeda-backed Taleban. The British soldiers were struck by a bomb dropped by a US F-15 jet called in to help during a fierce battle near the massive Kajaki Dam, which troops are fighting to secure from the hardline...

Three British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan by so-called friendly fire from American fighter planes, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. The MoD said the soldiers, from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, were killed at around 1830 local time (1500 BST) on Thursday. It is understood they died when the planes dropped a bomb near their patrol in Helmand province. Two other soldiers were also injured. Next of kin have been informed. The fighter planes had been called in to give air support to ground troops, the Ministry of Defence said. Defence Secretary Des Browne said he...

LONDON (Reuters) - Three British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan when a U.S. aircraft supporting them in a battle against the Taliban dropped a bomb, the Ministry of Defense said on Friday. The incident on Thursday takes the number of British deaths in Afghanistan since the Taliban was toppled in 2001 to 73. Two other soldiers were injured. The soldiers were on a mission to disrupt Taliban activity north west of Kajaki, in the lawless Helmand province. "Their patrol was attacked by Taliban insurgents and during the intense engagement that ensued, close air support was called in from two...

OTTAWA (CP) - A U.S. military machine gunner, who mistakenly opened fire on Canadians soldiers in the midst of desperate, pitched battle with the Taliban last year, had not been warned that friendly troops were anywhere in the vicinity, a Canadian investigation concluded Tuesday. The board of inquiry that looked into the March 29, 2006 attack that claimed the life of Pte. Robert Costall blamed the "fog of war" and more specifically a lack of co-ordination between Canadian, U.S. and Afghan forces, all of which were occupying a dusty, hilltop base that was in danger of being overrun. Canadian military...

SAN FRANCISCO - Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman’s forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player’s death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. “The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described,” a doctor who examined Tillman’s body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators. The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said that the bullet holes were so close together that...

News Release A-10A Friendly Fire Board of Inquiry Findings released CEFCOM NR-07.028 - July 13, 2007 OTTAWA - Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, Commander Canadian Expeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM), released today the findings from the A-10A Friendly Fire Incident Board of Inquiry (BOI) that investigated the September 4, 2006, events during which a USAF aircraft opened fire on Canadian troops. This incident resulted in the death of Private Mark Anthony Graham and injuries to several other Canadian soldiers serving with Charles Company group, Royal Canadian Regiment, Joint Task Force – Afghanistan (JTF-Afg). “Members of the Board of Inquiry produced a thorough report...

In every modern war, commanders have tried to write comforting letters home to parents of soldiers killed in the service. Regardless of the circumstances of their deaths, decent and compassionate commanders have always tried to put those circumstances in the best light possible, sometimes stretching the truth or even glossing over painful facts. Sometimes their actions were also designed to hide the fact of their own incompetence or “for the good of the service”, but usually the motives were benign.

READINGTON, N.J. (AP) An FBI agent who was killed Thursday when a stakeout team opened fire on three armed bank robbery suspects might have been shot accidentally by another agent, the FBI said.

Two soldiers killed in Iraq in February may have died as a result of friendly fire, Army officials said Wednesday. The Army said it is investigating the deaths of Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., who were killed in Ramadi, in western Iraq, on Feb. 2. The families of the two soldiers were initially told they were killed by enemy fire...

Friendly Fire in Iraq: Inept Investigation or Pentagon Cover-Up? The Enterprise Report - ERSNews.com ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained never before seen photos of the battle at an-Nasiriyah, the largest single loss of American troops since the start of the Iraq War. Los Angeles (ERSNews.com ) March 27, 2007 -- Was the Pentagon covering up or was their investigation inept? These are questions being asked by the web site, ERSNews.com. ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained never seen before photos of the battle at an-Nasiriyah, the largest single loss of American troops since the start of the Iraq War. The official Pentagon investigation...

Friendly Fire in Iraq: Pentagon Cover Up or Inept Investigation Tue Mar 27, 3:00 AM ET ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained never before seen photos of the battle at an-Nasiriyah, the largest single loss of American troops since the start of the Iraq War. Los Angeles (ERSNews.com ) March 27, 2007 -- Was the Pentagon covering up or was their investigation inept? These are questions being asked by the web site, ERSNews.com. ERSNews.com has exclusively obtained never seen before photos of the battle at an-Nasiriyah, the largest single loss of American troops since the start of the Iraq War. The official...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British coroner on Friday ruled that a U.S. "friendly fire" attack that killed a British soldier in Iraq was unlawful and criminal. Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker's said the death of Lance Cpl. Matty Hull in an attack on his armored vehicle convoy in southern Iraq in March 2003, was entirely avoidable. The coroner's verdict is not binding on the United States, which is not subject to British law. Hull's widow Susan welcomed the decision. "All my family feel it is the right verdict, it is what we have waited four years to hear,"...

The Sun is claiming copyright so I will only post a link. It is to a cockpit video of an A10 attack which sadly led to the death of a UK soldier. It makes sobering viewing.

THIS is the full transcript of the cockpit video from call sign POPOV36 during the disastrous friendly fire attack on the Household Cavalry patrol (that killed L/Cpl Matt Hull). Lasting just over 15 minutes, it begins just before the A-10 Thunderbolt pilot spots the four British vehicles. The local time is 4.36pm, or 1.36pm Greenwich Mean Time which is what the military use. The killer pilot’s wingman, hunting targets with him in a second A-10, had the call sign POPOV35. The other main call signs on the radio net are MANILA HOTEL, MANILA34, and LIGHTNING34 — three US Marine Corps...

Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a Madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage? This is the question Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Sen. Barack Obama. An investigation of Mr. Obama by political opponents within the Democratic Party has discovered that Mr. Obama was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia. Sources close to the background check, which has not yet been released, said Mr. Obama, 45, spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia.

ISLAMABAD: A BBC correspondent who went missing on Monday was released by his kidnappers on Tuesday. Dilawar Khan told Daily Times that he was kidnapped by some unidentified men near the police lines in H-11 Sector. “I was waiting for a cab when a car stopped near me. Some men got out and shoved me into the car after blindfolding and beating me,” he said, adding that he was taken to an unidentified location, and was asked questions about his profession. He said the kidnappers released him after warning him not to tell anybody about the incident. staff report

Halifax — A high-profile lawyer who sued the U.S. government for the mother of a Canadian soldier killed by American friendly fire has admitted he embezzled money from his clients, CBC Radio reports. A disciplinary board with the Nova Scotia Barristers Society heard that Dick Murtha billed for work he didn't do, hid insurance settlements from recipients and took out high-interest loans for clients without their knowledge, according to CBC. That has added up to $200,000 now missing from his clients' accounts. Darrell Pink of the society says Mr. Murtha violated almost every trust account regulation for maintaining books appropriately....

One of seven Canadian soldiers seriously wounded when U.S. jets mistakenly fired on them said he does not feel any anger toward the pilots involved in the incident. "None at all. I feel bad for them, as well, because I know they're probably grieving, as well," Sgt. Kym Cousineau told CBC News. Pte. Mark Anthony Graham was killed and about 30 others were wounded Monday when two U.S. A-10 Thunderbolts mistakenly strafed a Canadian platoon. An investigation has been launched into the friendly-fire incident that took his life. Cousineau said his troops were just breaking camp and getting ready to...

OTTAWA (CP) - The death of a Canadian soldier under the fire of two American warplanes in Afghanistan on the weekend conjures memories of a deadly 2002 incident that killed four other Canadians. But the similarities are only superficial. Pte. Mark Graham was killed and 30 other Canadians were injured when the A-10 Warthog aircraft accidentally strafed a Canadian unit in the middle of a major combat operation. The four Canadians killed in 2002 died after an American pilot dropped a bomb from 10,000 feet as the Canadians conducted a night firing exercise in a recognized practice zone near Kandahar,...

PANJWAII, Afghanistan (CP) - NATO warplanes accidentally strafed Canadian troops on Monday, killing one soldier and wounding more than 30 others in a massive anti-Taliban operation that claimed four Canadian lives just the day before. The five deaths in the Panjwaii district west of Kandahar are the most sustained by Canada in a 24-hour period since the country began serving in Afghanistan in early 2002. The identity of the soldier killed in the friendly fire incident on Monday was not released. The five soldiers were killed as NATO forces launched Operation Medusa, aimed at purging Taliban militants from the dangerous...

IsraelNN.com) A Katyusha rocket fired by Hizbullah terrorists wounded a Reuters News Agency cameraman Thursday afternoon in Nahariya. Rami Amichai was filming when he suffered leg wounds from shrapnel. He was treated at the Nahariya hospital. Two members of an Israel Radio broadcasting team also were hurt in Tzefat, which was under siege Thursday night by continuous rocket attacks.

Everyone has heard of the “killings at Haditha,” even though the military investigation of what happened there is still underway. Has anyone heard of the “killings at St. Lo” in July, 1944? A comparison of the New York Times coverage of those two events is instructive. A Google News search of Haditha + killings + New York Times yields 891 hits as of Sunday noon. The articles on this subject in the Times are driving the national and international news in all media on this subject. The Times and its reporters are cited in most of these articles. But what...

LOS ANGELES (AP) Three gang members tried to ambush a suspected rival but ended up killing one of their own, police said.The incident occurred Wednesday evening when Carlos Cortez, 18, Marcus King, 16, and a 16-year-old boy saw a light colored SUV they thought belonged to a rival gang, Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon said. Cortez placed himself on the opposite side of the street from the other two and fired several shots at the vehicle when it passed by a second time, he said.Cortez's shots struck King in the stomach and he died later that night at a...

<p>A criminal probe is being opened into the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.</p>

The U.S. military reports no casualties in a shooting incident Wednesday involving Canadians inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. It happened when a Canadian diplomatic vehicle failed to obey orders to stop. The Canadian Embassy in neighboring Jordan said there were four diplomats in the vehicle, including Canada's top official in Iraq. The embassy said Canadian and American authorities are investigating. A U.S. military spokesman said U.S. soldiers fired warning rounds at the front of what he identifies as a "convoy." The Green Zone in downtown Baghdad is home to the Iraqi government and numerous foreign missions including the...

There are reports that a Canadian consular vehicle came under fire from U.S. troops in Baghdad on Tuesday. The car was believed to be carrying some members of the Canadian diplomatic service through the city's Green Zone - a heavily fortified area of the capital.

Chilling video from a Bronx burger joint shows five thugs beating an off-duty cop senseless - possibly explaining why he didn't budge when another officer told him to drop his gun moments before shooting him, police sources said yesterday. [snip] Detectives released the surveillance tape last night, hoping to identify the five goons who jumped off-duty Officer Eric Hernandez inside a Tremont White Castle early Saturday - punching and stomping the intoxicated cop without mercy. [snip] It was then that veteran uniformed Officer Alfredo Toro and his partner rolled up. Toro shouted, "Drop the gun!" four times, a witness and...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, today expressed his regrets to ABC News for the injuries sustained by anchor Bob Woodruff and a videographer in what Mr. Zarqawi called, “this tragic incident of friendly fire.” “The American news media has always treated us well,” the al Qaeda leader said in a printed statement. “We were trying to kill U.S. and Iraqi soldiers when this unfortunate accident occurred. We pray to Allah for the swift recovery of the injured, and hope they can be back on the job soon.” A spokesman for ABC News said a preliminary investigation...

The American mass media are like tired old dogs, dutifully fetching official lies on command and dropping them like bones at the feet of an unsuspecting public. We in turn reward them by buying both the products and the myths they sell us. Eventually, however, the products fail and the myths unravel. When the government's popularity wanes sufficiently, despite the support of a compliant press, even old dogs can come up with new tricks, reviving the lost art of investigative reporting. Take the Pat Tillman story. Remember him? He was the star National Football League defensive back who, after the...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com Police ease rules on off-duty gunsPublished November 28, 2005 PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- An old police tradition of requiring off-duty officers to carry their weapons -- "always armed, always on duty" -- is being scaled back in many police departments after the shootings of off-duty officers by colleagues who thought they were criminals.     The policies require officers to respond to crimes even when they're not on duty, a requirement supporters say protects officers from criminals bent on revenge.     But critics point to the shooting of officers in Providence, R.I.; Orlando, Fla.; Oakland, Calif.; and elsewhere as...

TWO patrols of elite Australian SAS soldiers were almost killed by friendly fire during their deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only luck and quick thinking prevented tragedies that could have changed the Australian public's support for the war on terror at critical political times for the Howard government. In the first incident, during 2002, US forces were about to fire more than 100 mortar shells in Afghanistan when they learnt SAS soldiers were in the line of fire. A year later, during the invasion of Iraq, SAS troops almost killed one another in a firefight on the second day of...

WASHINGTON -- The Army on Thursday issued a fresh denial that it attempted to cover up the friendly fire death of former pro football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. The Army said procedural mistakes were to blame for its slow acknowledgment of the circumstances of Tillman's death. Tillman's parents have criticized the Army for waiting weeks to tell them his death was accidental and did not result from enemy fire.

(CP) - Four Canadians killed by U.S. friendly fire in Afghanistan were honoured Monday by American soldiers in a service that left family members in tears. "This is a brotherhood and this is proof," said a shaken Richard Leger, father of Sgt. Marc Leger, who died on April 18, 2002, when an American fighter pilot mistakenly dropped a bomb on Canadians conducting a military exercise. "It's a family and we're part of that family." The names of the four, including Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard Green and Pte. Nathan Smith, were added to a memorial on the Fort Campbell base...

WASHINGTON A published report says Army officials knew within days of Pat Tillman's death that the former Arizona Cardinal's player had been killed by fellow Rangers during a patrol in Afghanistan but did not inform his family and the public for weeks. A new Army report shows that Afghan theater commander, General John P. Abizaid (AB'-ih-zayd) and other top Army officials were aware an investigation had determined Tillman's death was caused by an act of "gross negligence" four days before a nationally televised memorial service. The Post says it obtained the information after reviewing nearly two-thousand pages of documents. The...

Israel And Freedom For Jonathan Pollard By Caroline Glick The Jerusalem Post - With INA Publisher's Note Below Jerusalem ---- April 28......Jonathan Pollard is one of the most polarizing figures of our times. Pollard, a former intelligence analyst in US naval intelligence, has now served 20 years of a life imprisonment sentence following his conviction for transferring classified US intelligence materials relating to Arab ballistic missile and nonconventional weapons programs to Israel from May 1984 until his arrest in November 1985. For his contribution to Israel's security and for his long suffering in prison, Israel considers Pollard a national hero....

WIESBADEN, Germany — It was a huge mission, the defense said, a big part of the reason the 1st Armored Division had to extend past a year in Iraq. It was “traffic control,” the prosecution said, with the hope of detaining a high-value target. “The sum total of the operation?” prosecutor Capt. Dan Sennott asked Monday in his opening statement in the court-martial of Capt. Roger Maynulet, who is accused of assault with attempt to commit murder in the death of an Iraqi man last May. “Two detainees, a dead driver and — after searching 30 houses — one 9...

SOFIA, Mar 28 (Reuters) Bulgaria will punish the head of its military operations in Iraq, the Defence Ministry said today, but declined to say whether it was linked to the killing of a Bulgarian soldier by U.S. troops earlier this month. The NATO newcomer has blamed U.S. forces for accidentally killing junior sergeant Gurdi Gurdev on March 4 when they fired on his patrol in southern Iraq, but it has also said poor communications with its allies played a role. Colonel Geno Chepilski, Bulgaria's senior representative in Iraq was responsible for coordinating with U.S. troops, but Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov...

US admits responsibility for “unintentional” Bulgarian death in Iraq (AFP) 12 March 2005 SOFIA - US forces have admitted responsibility for a Bulgarian soldier’s “friendly fire” death last week in Iraq, saying it was “unintentional” and provoked by two nearby terrorist attacks, the Bulgarian defence ministry said Saturday. “The gunfire against our patrol was preceded by a terrorist attack on an American logistics convoy nine kilometers south of communication post number 5 (which later produced the “friendly fire’) and a second attack against a rapid deployment unit of post number 6, three to five kilometers south of the same post,”...

AMERICAN soldiers in Iraq are being given “anti-fratricide” training to reduce the number of friendly fire attacks against British and other coalition troops, The Times has learnt. Thirty-two “blue-on-blue” attacks on British and other coalition vehicles have been logged in the past twelve months in southern Iraq, Britain’s area of responsibility. The training was revealed as Washington and Rome announced a joint inquiry into the killing last week of an Italian secret agent when US troops opened fire on the car in which he was accompanying a freed hostage to Baghdad airport. The inquiry was announced by General George Casey,...

An investigation into the fatal shooting of a Bulgarian soldier in Iraq last week has shown that US troops were probably responsible, the Balkan state's defence minister said today. "Someone started shooting at our patrol from the west, and in the same direction, 150m away, there was a unit from the US army," Nikolai Svinarov told a news conference. "The result (of the investigation) gives us enough grounds to believe the death of rifleman Gurdi Gurdev was caused by friendly fire."

ROME Mar 5, 2005 — Italy demanded answers Saturday as former hostage Giuliana Sgrena was taken off a flight from Iraq wrapped in a plaid blanket and hooked to an intravenous drip for a shoulder wound inflicted when American troops fired on a car taking her to the Baghdad airport. The Italian agent who negotiated her freedom was hit and died in her arms. The shooting at a U.S. checkpoint in Baghdad stoked anti-war sentiment in Italy, where the public was widely opposed to the government's decision to send 3,000 troops to help U.S.-led efforts to secure the country from...