This is a powerful and well-written account which will leave you both sad and angry. A further fifteen percent of the 480 wounded were by our own troops. This article is dedicated to a fratricide that occurred at a small airfield called Umm Hajul, located about 150 kilometers southwest of Basra, Iraq. Deadly Mistaken Identity - How could American warplanes shoot down two U.S. helicopters By Richard Lacayo. Though there had been no reported violations of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq since January 1993, Iraqi helicopters had been a problem in the past, when Saddam Hussein used them to suppress the Kurdish rebellion that erupted after the Gulf War ended in 1991.
Lives lost to friendly fire are a devastating cost of battle.
Almost one-fourth of the 148 American combat deaths in the Gulf War resulted from accidental assault by their own side. The Pentagon established a Fratricide Task Force to develop ways to avoid such accidents. Even during the war, however, when hundreds of planes representing more than two dozen allied nations filled the skies, none of those deaths involved aircraft firing upon one another. Some military analysts believe that deadly misjudgments are made more likely by battlefield technology that hands over decisions to computers. Defense officials acknowledged that last week's mishap is likely to hamper efforts to improve the capability of new U.S. weapon systems to fire on an enemy from far away.