US General Stanley Laurel has issued a statement following the killing of five Syrian civilians in Iraq by a US missile.

The Syrian foreign minister summoned the US and UK ambassadors to formally protest the deaths, which is certain to chill them to the bone and call a halt to all future US plans.

In a statement later General Laurel explained that US missiles were fitted with state of the art realtime guidance systems, three-stage failsafe software and were constantly double-checked against satellite triangulation. "But," he added, "the moment we press the trigger who knows where the hell they're going to end up?"