The US has admitted that some of its soldiers may have been taken prisoner in Iraq and that about 10 of its military personnel were missing.
In other areas of the conflict, a US Patriot missile inadvertently shot down a British Tornado, with the loss of two crew, and a US serviceman was being held after an alleged attack in which one of his colleagues was killed and 12 others were injured.
US Air Force Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said "less than 10" soldiers were unaccounted for in southern Iraq, but US government officials said exact numbers were unclear and that they were probably members of a military maintenance unit in southern Iraq.
Iraqi television has shown footage of what were described as four dead US soldiers and five prisoners who said they were American. Meanwhile, the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said he had heard that an allied aircraft was missing, but had no information about Iraqi claims that two Western pilots were forced to bale out over Baghdad.
British officials confirmed that one of their Tornado strike aircraft was shot down by a US missile near the Kuwait border and that the two-man crew was missing.
In this latest "friendly fire" incident, which is under a joint US-British investigation, the Royal Air Force plane was hit by a Patriot missile after an operation in the Gulf. Speaking later in London, the British Foreign Office Minister Mr Mike O'Brien said the Tornado fighter-bomber had a crew of two.
Elsewhere, a US soldier was detained on suspicion of throwing grenades into three tents at a 101st Airborne command centre in Kuwait, reportedly killing a fellow serviceman and wounding 12 others, three of them seriously. The motive in the attack "most likely was resentment," said a US army spokesman.
Initially, it was suspected that the attack was the work of terrorists and two Kuwaiti men who had been hired as contractors were detained, but they were later released. Suspicion then fell on a colleague when it was discovered that some of his grenades were missing. The soldier was reportedly shot in the leg and then forced to the ground at gunpoint before a blanket was thrown over his head.
One grenade was thrown at the command tent, location of the division's tactical operations centre, which operates 24 hours a day and would always be staffed by officers and senior enlisted personnel. It was alleged that the suspect had been in trouble recently for insubordination and was being left out of forthcoming operations in Iraq.
The incident came a day after an Australian journalist was killed in a suicide bombing in northern Iraq which was believed to be the work of a local Islamic group. Cameraman Paul Moran (39), who was on assignment for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), died instantly when a taxi raced up beside him and exploded at Sayed Sadiq.
There was a false alarm at the US Central Command headquarters outside Doha, capital of Qatar. At about noon local time yesterday an explosion was heard in the vicinity of the camp and plumes of smoke rose into the air. However, it turned out to be a car being crushed at a nearby industrial plant.
Contrary to normal practice there was petrol in the tank, which caused the explosion. But security at the camp has been increased since hostilities began and photographers who take pictures of the entrance have been warned they will get a week in a local jail.