SPACE WIRE
Kurdish leader's brother wounded by US friendly fire: official
SHAMSHULA, Iraq (AFP) Apr 06, 2003
Wajih Barzani, the head of special forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the brother of KDP leader Massoud Barzani, was seriously wounded Sunday when a US plane bombed his convoy by mistake, a high-ranking Kurdish official told AFP.

An unknown number of US troops escorting the convoy were among 10 to 12 people killed in the "friendly fire" incident, according to a BBC reporter who was some four metres (yards) away when the bomb fell.

PDK external relations official Hoshyar Zebari said, "There was firing and the American special forces asked for close air support, but unfortunately two aircraft bombed the joint forces."

"We have no exact figure of the number of dead, but there are many wounded," Zebari said, adding, "we are worried" about Barzani, 33.

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