British casualties: Mr Tony Blair's thoughts and prayers were again with widows and grieving families yesterday as British forces in Iraq suffered their third tragic accident in as many days, writes Frank Millar, in London
The commander of the British forces in the Gulf, Air Marshal Brian Burridge, confirmed an RAF Tornado and its two-man crew were hit by a US Patriot missile close to the Kuwaiti border as it returned from operations in Iraq.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister awoke to the news that another six British servicemen, along with an American comrade, had lost their lives when two Royal Navy helicopters from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal collided in mid-air.
The fatal collision in darkness over international waters came just one day after eight British commandos and four US marines died in a Sea Knight helicopter crash in Kuwait.
An urgent investigation was under way into the loss of the Tornado and the possible failure of electronic identification systems designed to avert such "friendly fire" disasters, the air marshal told the BBC. "This is a sad moment but we will put it behind us as quickly as we can in a military sense and carry on to our objective."
With veteran ITN journalist Terry Lloyd and his crew also missing, Foreign Office Minister Mr Mike O'Brien spoke of the "terrible events", details of which remained unclear in the "fog of war". He braced the British public for the likelihood that allied forces would face stiffer Iraqi resistance in the coming days.
Former prime minister Mr John Major said the loss of the aircraft was a tragedy about which he was "desperately sad".
Speaking from Singapore to the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, Mr Major said: "These things have happened in war before. When people refer to the fog of war in many ways they speak quite literally, and this may be another illustration of that."
The US ambassador to the UK, Mr William Farish, also expressed his regrets, telling the same programme: "It is absolutely terrible. Friendly fire is something we have lived with for ages throughout wars but to have it happen like this is very sad."
Conservative leader Mr Iain Duncan Smith also said his thoughts and prayers were with the families of those involved. He warned that "friendly fire" casualties were always likely in a military action of such "phenomenal" scale.
"This is the nature of warfare and you try to minimise this but it is a tragedy nonetheless for the families," he said.
"The scale is phenomenal and all of these are pieces of complex equipment and you have to have near-perfect relationships between the pilots and the equipment and the other bits of equipment; the Patriot battery, the codes, the identification of the friendly forces has to be absolutely right at the right time."
He continued: "When you think about how much is moving at the moment on the battlefield, this is one incident and most of these things are going right. It is sad but I am afraid it is the nature of modern warfare."