US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld said last night that "misdirected ground fire" by Iraqi forces was responsible for the alleged deaths of 23 people in northern Iraq, rejecting Baghdad's claims of US and British air strikes.
Mr Rumsfeld said coalition aircraft saw anti-aircraft artillery fire and "one or two missiles" launched by Iraqi forces.
But "the coalition aircraft did not fire in response and in the event anyone was killed it was undoubtedly the result of misdirected ground fire that ended up in a location that was not intended," he said.
Iraqi state television yesterday broadcast footage of the northern village of Tel Afr, where Baghdad said 23 people were killed the previous day and another 11 wounded in an air raid by warplanes from the United States and Britain. The television footage showed several deep craters, metal debris and bits of blood-stained clothing littered across a makeshift football field, while an announcer said the damage was caused by US and British warplanes.
The channel also showed a visit to the bomb site by the governor for the northern province of Ninawa, Mr Abdel Wahed Shannan, and several Ba'ath party officials.
The official INA news agency said the aircraft struck at 11 a.m. yesterday, hitting the village of Tel Afr, 45 km (28 miles) west of Mosul.
The agency described the alleged attack as "another vile crime carried out by the United States and its ally Britain against the combatant Iraqi people".
The US Defence Department has been quick to deny the report, which it said was a "fabrication", while a US military spokesman in Ankara said neither US nor British planes had bombed northern Iraq on Tuesday or yesterday.
The UN Security Council will hold an open debate on Iraq next Tuesday, the council's president, Mr Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, said yesterday. The meeting was formally requested by the Russian ambassador to the UN, Mr Sergei Lavrov.
A Western diplomat described Mr Lavrov's request as "a stalling tactic" connected with tense negotiations under way in the Security Council this month on proposals to reform the 11-year-old UN sanctions on Iraq.