"We have one Kurdish patient," the spokeswoman said. She declined to confirm whether the patient was Wajih Barzani, the head of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) special forces.

The 33-year-old Barzani is the brother of KDP leader Massoud Barzani, who has tied his forces to the US-led war on President Saddam Hussein's regime.

Several Turkish newspapers reported on Monday that Barzani had been flown to the US military hospital at Landstuhl, southwest Germany.

The hospital, the largest US military medical facility outside the United States, is where many of the US troops wounded in the Gulf are being treated.

Sunday's "friendly fire" incident came when a US officer on the ground with the Kurdish forces called in air support to take out a tank he had spotted on the road ahead. But the plane bombed the wrong target.

Kurdish sources said 18 Kurds were killed and 45 others wounded.

SPACE.WIRE