US warplane bombs allied convoy in Iraq; 18 killed

In yet another 'friendly fire' incident in Iraq, a jet hit a US-Kurdish convoy, killing 18 Kurdish fighters.

A US warplane bombed US special forces and Kurdish civilians in a convoy on Sunday, killing at least 18 of them in a "friendly fire" incident in northern Iraq, said a BBC correspondent who witnessed the event.

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The reporter, the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson, told the television: "I have counted 10 to 12 bodies...Americans dead."

"This is just a scene from hell here. There are vehicles on fire, bodies lying around, and there are bits of bodies around me.

"They hit their own people... they've killed a lot of ordinary characters, I'm just looking at the bodies now and it's not a very pretty sight," Simpson, injured in the incident, told BBC television in the report from northern Iraq monitored in London.

He said a senior Kurdish political figure was believed to be among the wounded. He said the bomb was dropped from a US plane 10 to 12 feet from where he was standing.