Six killed in Navy jet bombing blunder

A US Navy warplane mistakenly bombed soldiers during a training exercise in Kuwait, killing five Americans and a New Zealander.

The Navy F/A-18 Hornet was practising close air support for ground troops at the Udairi bombing range, 45 miles north-west of Kuwait City.

The plane dropped explosives "on or near" an observation post, says the US Central Command.

The command said in a statement the six were confirmed dead and five American military personnel have been taken to hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. Two of them have been released.

The New Zealand government is pressing for answers over the death of its soldier, Acting Major John McNutt, 27.

"It's a terrible tragedy and ... we are now looking for an urgent, detailed explanation as to how such a training exercise can go so terribly wrong," defence minister Mark Burton said.

"This was a live bomb basically dropped on observers. It shouldn't happen and we all need to know precisely what went wrong."

The New Zealand Army said Maj McNutt was killed instantly. US officials said they would not identify the dead and injured Americans until their families were notified.

Two of the Americans killed were from the Army and two were from the Air Force, said one official. Nothing more was known about the fifth US soldier.

It is the second accident involving the US Navy in a little more than a month. On February 9 the submarine USS Greeneville struck a Japanese fisheries training vessel while surfacing off Hawaii, leaving nine dead, including four teenagers.