In the
Battle of Nasiriyah, an American force of Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAVs) and infantry under intense enemy fire were misidentified as an Iraqi armored column by two U.S. Air Force
A-10s who carried out bombing and strafing runs on them. 18 were killed as a result.
[*]A
U.S. Patriot missile shot down a British
Panavia Tornado GR.4A of
No. 13 Squadron RAF, killing the pilot and navigator. Investigations showed that the Tornado's
identification friend or foe indicator had malfunctioned and hence it was not identified as a friendly aircraft.
[170][171]
[*]Sgt
Steven Roberts, a tank commander of the
2nd Royal Tank Regiment, was killed when a fellow British soldier manning a tank-mounted machine gun mistakenly hit him while firing at a stone wielding Iraqi protester at a roadblock in
Az Zubayr near
Basra on 24 March 2003.
[172] It was reported that no British soldiers were to be charged for his death.
[173]
[*]A British
Challenger 2 tank came under fire from another British tank in a nighttime firefight. The turret was blown off and two of the crewmembers were killed.
[174][175]
[*]
190th Fighter Squadron/Blues and Royals friendly fire incident – 28 March 2003. A pair of American
A-10s from the 190th attacked four British armoured reconnaissance vehicles of the
Blues and Royals, killing
L/CoH. Matty Hull and injuring five others.
[*]British
Royal Marine Christopher Maddison was killed when his river patrol boat was hit by missiles after being wrongly identified as an enemy vessel approaching a
Royal Engineers checkpoint on the
Al-Faw Peninsula, Iraq.
[176]
[*]
U.S. Patriot missile batteries fired two missiles on a
U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornet 50 mi (80 km) from
Karbala, Iraq.
[177] One missile hit the aircraft of pilot Lieutenant Nathan Dennis White of
VFA-195,
Carrier Air Wing Five, killing him. This was the result of the missile design flaw in identifying hostile aircraft.
[178]
[*]American aircraft attacked a friendly Kurdish &
U.S. Special Forces convoy, killing 15.
BBC translator Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed was killed and BBC reporter Tom Giles and World Affairs Editor
John Simpson were injured. The incident was filmed.
[179]
[*]
Fusilier Kelan Turrington, of the 1st Battalion,
Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was killed by machine-gun fire from a British tank.
[180]
[*]American soldier
Mario Lozano killed an Italian intelligence officer
Nicola Calipari and is suspected of wounding Italian journalist
Giuliana Sgrena in
Baghdad. Sgrena was rescued from a
kidnapping by Calipari, and it was claimed that the car they were escaping in failed to stop at an American checkpoint, whereupon U.S. soldiers opened fire. Video evidence shows the car was respecting speed limits and proceeding with its headlights on. The shooting commenced well before 50 meters, in contrast with what Lozano and other soldiers testified.
[181]
[*]During a raid on 16 July 2006 to apprehend a key terrorist leader and accomplice in a suburb of North
Basra, Cpl John Cosby, of the
Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, was killed by a
5.56 mm round from a British-issued
SA80. It was ruled to be a case of friendly fire by the coroner. It was reported that the British forces who shot him were unclear about the rules of engagement.
[182][183]
[*]An American airstrike killed eight
Kurdish Iraqi soldiers. Kurdish officials advised U.S.
helicopters hit the men who were guarding a branch of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in
Mosul. The U.S. military said the attack was launched after soldiers identified armed men in a bunker near a building reportedly used for bomb-making, and that American troops called for the men to put down their weapons in
Arabic and
Kurdish before launching the strike.
[184]
[*]
Dave Sharrett, II was shot and killed in a firefight with insurgents near the village of Bichigan, north of Baghdad in January 2008, during Operation Hood Harvest. The incident has since been described as friendly fire.
[185]
[*]
[186]SPC Donald Oaks,
SGT Todd Robbins,
[187] and
SFC Randall Rehn[188] of D Battery, 1st Battalion, 39th Field Artillery Regiment (
MLRS, M270 A1),
3rd Infantry Division Artillery [189](Previously C Battery 3-13 FA
[190]), were killed when a US fighter jet mistook the rocket artillery from US MLRS as enemy targets on 3 April 2003 while 3rd ID DIVARTY conducted a counter fire battle with Iraqi positions along the Euphrates River.
[190] The ordnance struck the vehicles of the soldiers killing SFC Rehn instantly, while SGT Robbins
[191] and SPC Oaks
[192] died shortly after from their wounds. 5 other soldiers were WIA from the event.
[193][194]
www.csid.ro
