Accidentally dropping bomb on Kuwait??

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Does anyone have info on this story yet? Our US) fighter pilots dropped bomb and there are many fatalities..

-- Tess (webwoman@iamit.com), March 12, 2001

Answers

5 dead and 10 injured.. bomb hit an observation post in Kuwait during an excersize..I'll go fetch a news article if I can find one....

-- Tess (webwoman@iamit.com), March 12, 2001.

Monday March 12 2:40 PM ET 5 Reported Dead in US Navy Accident

WASHINGTON - (AP) - A U.S. Navy plane accidentally dropped some form of munitions on a bombing range in Kuwait on Monday, killing five people, including four Americans, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said.

Details were sketchy.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would say only that there had been a ``training accident'' and that there were an unspecified number of casualties.

Other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five had been killed, including four Americans. The nationality of the fifth was not immediately known.

The accident happened at the Udari bombing range in Kuwait.

The United States military has operated regularly from airfields and an Army base in Kuwait since the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), when U.S. forces expelled the occupying Iraqi army from the tiny Persian Gulf nation.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010312/ts/bc_navy_kuwait_accident.ht ml

Just heard a while ago on MSNBC that there were 10 wounded also...

-- Tess (webwoman@iamit.com), March 12, 2001.


yahoo

Monday March 12 7:19 PM ET American Jet Kills Friendly Troops in Bombing Run

By Ashraf Fouad

KUWAIT (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy F/A-18 warplane dropped a 500-pound bomb near a group of military observers and killed five U.S. soldiers and a New Zealander during an exercise in the Kuwaiti desert near Iraq's border, officials said.

It was the latest accident to embarrass the U.S. military, coming just a month after a U.S. Navy submarine sank a Japanese trawler, killing nine civilians aboard the fishing boat.

The United States Embassy in Kuwait said in a statement early on Tuesday that the warplane ``dropped an explosive ordnance on or near an observation post at the Udairi Range'' just south of the border with Kuwait's former occupier Iraq.

It said five U.S. military personnel and a New Zealander were killed and five Americans were wounded, including two who had now been released from hospital.

The embassy said none of the U.S. wounded was critical. A U.S. investigation board would arrive in the Gulf Arab state later this week.

Earlier, Western defense sources in Kuwait had said 12 people, including two Kuwaiti soldiers, were injured.

The New Zealand government said it wanted an urgent explanation on how the accident happened -- something which remained unclear hours after the bomb dropped on the training range, in northwestern Kuwait.

The bomb slammed into the ground near the group in darkness at about 8 p.m. (around 1700 GMT). The range is a regular training site for 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) coalition forces based in Kuwait since driving Iraqi forces out of the oil-rich state in February 1991 after a seven-month occupation.

Some of the wounded were flown to a Kuwaiti military hospital in the capital Kuwait City by helicopter, sources at the hospital said.

The sources said one of the wounded Kuwaitis was seen walking at the hospital which was closed to the media.

``The Americans missed their target during the air bombing exercise and killed probably six soldiers on the ground,'' said an Arab defense source in Kuwait earlier, quoting an eyewitness.

In Wellington, the New Zealand Defense Force said in a statement that Acting Major John McNutt, 27, was killed by the bomb during a live-firing exercise at the range.

McNutt had been a member of the elite First NZ Special Air Services Group for around 18 months, spokesman Major Hugh McAslan said.

Bomb Fell In Darkness

Those killed and injured were on the ground observing training when they were hit by the blast in the dark, U.S. defense officials said.

The U.S. military along with Kuwaiti and foreign forces based in the Gulf Arab state have set up a permanent training range at Udairi, where almost year-round exercises code-named ''Intrinsic Action'' are held.

New Zealand has a few officers attached to the operation.

In Washington, Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said the jet was based on the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry Truman in the Gulf.

``We lost some servicemen today in a training accident in Kuwait,'' President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said in a speech during an appearance in Panama City, Florida. He asked the crowd for a moment of silence for the casualties.

Around 5,000 Americans are based in Kuwait.

Other than 1,200 U.S. ground troops equipped with heavy arms who regularly use the range, the United States and Britain have air forces deployed in Kuwait as part of ``Operation Southern Watch'' which runs almost daily patrols over southern Iraq to enforce a no-fly zone there.

The troops are also based in Kuwait to deter any possible further threat to the country by forces of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.


BBC

Monday, 12 March, 2001, 21:20 GMT US bombing accident in Kuwait

At least six people have been killed as a US Navy F-18 jet accidentally dropped a bomb on military personnel at a training range in Kuwait, officials say.

Four of the dead are said to be American military personnel. The fifth was a New Zealander.

The nationality of the sixth victim has not been made public.

Some 10 others were wounded, according to the US Department of Defence.

(snip)

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 12, 2001.


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