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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING
| Pentagon: Three Americans killed, five wounded in alleged ''friendly fire'' attack in Northern Iraq By Associated Press, 4/6/2003 06:08 CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) A U.S. warplane bombed a convoy carrying U.S. Special Forces and Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing three Americans and wounding five others, U.S. Central Command said. ''Three U.S. service members were killed and five wounded in a possible friendly fire incident involving an F-15E Strike Eagle and coalition ground forces,'' the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. It gave no details on Kurdish casualties or the location of the apparent friendly-fire attack. John Simpson, a British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent who was with the troops, 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 Simps 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.''
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http://www.boston.com/dailynews/096/world/Pentagon_Three_Americans_kille:.shtml