Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf claimed Tuesday that several people were wounded when a US warplane attacked two Iraqi buses carrying volunteers, some of them American, who were operating as "human shields" to deter coalition attacks on Iraqi installations.

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

But a statement from US Central Command's forward planning base declared on Wednesday: "The charge ... was determined to be false today based on coalition air strike data and an independent news media report, including interviews with passengers in the convoy."

In Amman early Wednesday, volunteers arriving from Iraq in a road convoy denied having come under attack by a US warplane.

"We saw damaged vehicles on the side of the road that were hit but we did not witness any bombardment," US national Scott Kerr told AFP in Amman.

Kerr, a 27-year-old from Chicago, was among a group of 14 peace activists from the United States, Britain, Canada, Ireland and South Korea who drove Tuesday out of Baghdad in a three-minibus convoy.

SPACE.WIRE