"I am not aware of any reports of human shields, I cannot confirm that and have no information at all," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters here at US Central Command's forward planning base.

Earlier Tuesday Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf said in Baghdad that several people were wounded when a US warplane attacked two Iraqi buses carrying international volunteers, some of them American, who had been operating as human shields.

He said the attack took place Monday in the western town of Rutba between Baghdad and neighbouring Jordan.

SPACE.WIRE