ARBIL (Iraq), April 6: Eighteen Kurds were killed and 45 others wounded near here on Sunday when US aircraft mistakenly bombed a convoy in northern Iraq, a Kurdish official said, denying reports that four US special forces troops were among the dead.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) external relations official Hoshyar Zebari said that all those killed in the friendly fire attack, who included a translator for the BBC, were peshmerga fighters.

Zebari said the dead included many of the commanders of Kurdish forces who are battling, with assistance from elite American units, forces loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on the northern front.

Among the seriously wounded in the attack at Dibaga, 20 kilometres south of Arbil, was Wajih Barzani, 33, the head of KDP special forces and brother of party leader Massoud Barzani.

Hospital sources in Arbil earlier told AFP four Americans were among the dead. BBC correspondent John Simpson, who was travelling with the convoy and suffered minor injuries in the attack, also said he saw American dead.

Zebari, however, said no Americans had been killed but two or three US special forces soldiers were injured.

The US Central Command admitted in a statement that “coalition aircraft may have engaged special operations and friendly Kurdish ground forces approximately 50 kilometres southeast of Mosul”.

A subsequent statement from US Central Command headquarters in Qatar said “early casualty reports indicate one civilian

may have been killed, (and) one US soldier, one Kurdish soldier and four civilians were injured”.

The Pentagon on Sunday pledged to examine whether changes are needed after a spate of “friendly fire” deaths in the Iraq war, but analysts said the incidents suggest the US military failed to institute needed reforms after many similar tragedies in the 1991 Gulf War.

“I’m sure the Pentagon is concerned. I just don’t think they’ve done a whole lot. They haven’t really taken the steps necessary,” said analyst Patrick Garrett of the GlobalSecurity.org defence think tank in Virginia.

Among the string of deadly incidents so far, a US Patriot missile shot down a British Tornado jet, killing two crew members; another Patriot missile may have downed a US F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bomber; and a US F-15E Strike Eagle bombed an American artillery position, killing three soldiers.

In addition, a US A-10 Thunderbolt strafed a convoy of British armoured vehicles; and two British soldiers died in an exchange of fire between two British Challenger tanks.

“It’s not just a US problem. It’s a British problem as well,” said analyst Mark Burgess of the Center for Defence Information think tank in Washington.

US officials defend their record on “friendly fire.”—Agencies