A coroner has found that the deaths of two British airmen shot down by an American Patriot missile defence system at the beginning of the Iraq war were “entirely avoidable“.

A convoy of American special forces and Kurdish civilians came under attack today in what witnesses described as another friendly-fire incident.

Britain's Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon expressed regret today over the “tragic” deaths of two British soldiers whose tank was mistaken for Iraqi armour and destroyed by “friendly fire“.