Pentagon officials are scrambling to understand what went wrong in a training exercise in Kuwait in which a US Navy warplane dropped a bomb on military personnel, killing five Americans and a New Zealander.
A Navy F/A-18 Hornet strike-fighter was practicing "close air support" for ground troops at the Udairi bombing range near the Iraqi border when it dropped explosive ordnance "on or near" an observation post, the US Central Command said. Those killed and injured apparently were in the target area, but it was unclear what went wrong.
The command said in a statement six were confirmed dead and five American military personnel were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Two of them were released. An accident investigation board has been appointed and will arrive in Kuwait this week, the command said.
PHOTO: AP
"We will work hard to take care of the families involved and to find out how such an accident could occur," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a statement.
The New Zealand government pressed for answers in the accident that killed one of its soldiers, acting Major John McNutt, 27, as well as five Americans.
"It's a terrible tragedy and ... we are now looking for an urgent, detailed explanation as to how such a training exercise can go so terribly wrong," Defense Minister Mark Burton said from New Zealand.
"This was a live bomb basically dropped on observers. It shouldn't happen and we all need to know precisely what went wrong."
The New Zealand Army said McNutt was killed instantly.
It was the second major accident involving the US Navy in a little more than a month. On Feb. 9, the submarine USS Greenville struck a Japanese fisheries training vessel while surfacing near Hawaii, sinking the Japanese vessel and leaving nine dead.
Two of the Americans killed in the Kuwait bombing accident were from the Army and two were from the Air Force, said a Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity. No more was known about the fifth American killed. One Pentagon official said an estimated 10 people were injured. A second official said no civilians were involved.
US President George W. Bush, traveling Monday in Panama City, Florida, opened a speech on his budget proposals and military spending with a brief mention of the accident.
"I'm reminded today of how dangerous service can be," Bush said.
"We lost some servicemen today in Kuwait in a training accident." He led a moment of silence for the soldiers' families.
A leading Democrat on military issues, Representative Ike Skelton, said, "We cannot take for granted the hazards that our men and women in uniform face on a daily basis, in times of war as well as in times of peace."
The accident happened at about 7pm Monday in Kuwait, about 45km from the Iraqi border, during a multinational training exercise in which ground forces direct strike aircraft to specific targets.
The Navy plane was flying from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Gulf. An official said the plane dropped what was believed to be a 225kg gravity bomb.
It was not clear whether the pilot erred or whether those on the ground directed the Hornet to the wrong area on the bombing range.
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