A stray 500-pound (227-kilo) bomb dropped by a US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet killed six military personnel and wounded at least five others Monday during a close air support exercise in Kuwait, Kuwait and Pentagon officials said.
The Kuwait Defense Ministry and Pentagon officials said five Americans and a New Zealander were killed.
Three of the US injured were hospitalized while the other two were treated and released, said the US Central Command.
President George W. Bush mourned the dead, calling for a moment of silence during an appearance in Panama City, Florida.
"I'm reminded today of how dangerous service can be: we lost some servicemen today in Kuwait in a training accident. I hope you'll join me in a moment of silence for those soldiers and their families," Bush said.
In Auckland, New Zealand Defense Minister Mark Burton said his government was awaiting an "urgent explanation as to how a large bomb could be dropped in an area of a training range where observers were based."
"We are certainly conveying to the United States our sympathy to the families of the other officers who have been killed and injured, but as a matter of concern and urgency we need full and proper reporting as to how this terrible accident has taken place," he said.
The troops were taking part in a coalition exercise on the al-Udairi training range in Kuwait when they were hit by a single bomb dropped by an F/A-18 Hornet from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Gulf, the officials said.
The mishap occurred just after nightfall at about 7:00 pm (1500 GMT) in the desert of northern Kuwait, but hours later the circumstances were still unclear with conflicting casualty figures and only sketchy accounts of what happened.
"Tragedies such as this occur without warning and for reasons that are difficult to understand," said US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "We will work hard to take care of the families involved, and to find out how such an accident could occur."
The US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, which is responsible for US forces in the Gulf, said it was a routine close air support exercise in which ground and airborne forces call in air strikes by fighter aircraft orbiting overhead.
The New Zealand army said in a statement that Special Air Services Major John McNutt, 27, was killed while observing the live fire training exercise.
"The observation post he was in was accidentally hit by a bomb launched from an aircraft involved in the exercise. Maj. McNutt was killed instantly," it said.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said the bombing had been called for as part of a close air support exercise.
"Obviously the bomb didn't hit where it was intended to," he said.
He said it was believed to be a Mark-82 unguided "dumb" bomb, which would have been visually targeted.
Another Pentagon official, however, said the bomb may have been fitted with a laser guidance kit.
The casualties were taken to a Kuwait military hospital, said Lieutenant Colonel Joe Lamarca, a spokesman for the US Central Command.
The Kuwait Defence Ministry said seven military personnel were injured, including five Americans and two Kuwaitis.
The US Central Command said five US military personnel were injured and that "a number of coalition military personnel were treated at the accident scene and released."
An accident investigation board has been appointed and will arrive in Kuwait this week, the command said.
Kuwaiti, British, and New Zealand forces were taking part in the exercise, Lamarca said. "We don't know the extent they were involved in today's exercise and training," he said.
US forces regularly train at the al-Udairi range in the Kuwait desert, rotating through from bases in the United States.
There were about 4,500 US troops in Kuwait last fall, but the number fluctuates daily, Pentagon officials said – WASHINGTON (AFP)
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