Britain said a Royal Air Forceplane that went missing in the Gulf early today was likely shotdown by a US Patriot missile in the first known "friendlyfire" incident of the Iraq war.
"It appears the RAF aircraft was engaged by a Patriotmissile near the Kuwaiti border. The crew are missing . I can'tconfirm the type of aircraft or the number of crew," said aspokesman for Britain's Defence Ministry.
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A US spokesman said a Patriot missile battery may haveengaged the aircraft, which was returning from a mission on dayfour of the Iraq war.
"This is the first friendly fire incident (of this war)," aBritish defence spokeswoman said.
Patriots are designed to down enemy missiles and themistaken firing on a coalition plane is a blow for allied moraleas it faces resistance from Iraqi forces on the ground.
"This is a tragedy," Group Captain Al Lockwood told BBCtelevision. "We are doing everything we can do to find out therationale behind the problem."
It was Britain's third air tragedy of the conflict andunderscored the perils of waging round-the-clock strikes onIraq, which has been pounded by bombs and missiles.
Britain has lost 14 troops in two helicopter crashes in incidents Friday and yesterday.