'Friendly fire' kills two more UK troops

Two British soldiers were killed and two were injured yesterday in the latest "friendly fire" incident to blight the campaign in Iraq. The soldiers' tank was destroyed during fighting near Basra.

The two dead soldiers were named last night as Corporal Stephen John Allbutt from Stoke-on-Trent and Trooper David Jeffrey Clarke from Staffordshire.

The incident took place while British armour and infantry were battling against militiamen and irregular forces leading a guerrilla-style campaign in and around Iraq's second city. The four-man Challenger II tank was fired on by another British tank during the battle in the darkness.

The families of the dead men, from the Queen's Royal Lancers Regiment, have been told of the deaths. An inquiry is under way and will centre on why the tank's new identification technology failed to prevent the attack.

Colonel Chris Vernon, British Army Field headquarters spokesman, said last night: "Despite careful planning, excellent training, top-class night vision equipment and sophisticated combat ID measures, these events happen in the fog of war and the heat of battle."

The risk of Allied forces inflicting casualties on their own side was further underlined by reports an US F-16 jet had fired on an Allied Patriot missile battery inside Iraq which had locked on to the aircraft.

Therewere no casualties in the incident on Monday, which led to the fighter firing an anti-radiation missile to destroy the Patriot's radar.