Pentagon names dead US soldiers

The three US soldiers killed in a so-called friendly fire incident in Afghanistan have been identified.

An investigation is under way into the bombing that also killed five allied Afghan fighters and left 18 other US soldiers wounded.

The Pentagon has named the dead as Master Sergeant Jefferson Donald Davis, Sgt 1st Class Daniel Petithory, and Staff Sgt Brian Cody Prosser.

Sgt Davis, 39, of Tennessee, Sgt Petithory, 32, from Massachusetts, and Sgt Cody Prosser, from California, were killed near Kandahar. All were members of the Army's 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

"It's a terrible tragedy and our heart goes out to the families and the friends of those fine people," said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

All but three of the wounded were evacuated from the scene, first to a US Marine base south of Kandahar and then out of Afghanistan.

The injuries to the Americans taken outside of Afghanistan "vary from moderate to severe," according to a statement from US Central Command.

Eighteen Afghan anti-Taliban fighters are being treated on US Navy ships in the Arabian Sea. Eight are on the USS Peleliu and 10 aboard the USS Bataan.

Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "This is one of the potentially most hazardous type of missions that we use as a military tactic."

Hamid Karzai, the newly designated head of the provisional government in Afghanistan, was in the area where the bomb landed but was not seriously wounded, Pentagon officials say.