WASHINGTON, March 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agnecies) - In an editorial Monday, March 31, a leading U.S. mass-circulation newspaper said the U.S. invasion forces should boast less about precision bombs, which claimed the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians over the past few days.

“The widely publicized civilian deaths have generated anger at the United States and sympathy for Iraq in many nations. The incidents inevitably raise the question: How precise are our much-touted precision weapons?” The New York Times said.

"There is a downside to the incessant boasting about the surgical accuracy of the attacks. The allies deserve credit for conducting the most surgically precise bombing effort in the history of warfare, and they are surely right to let the world know how much care they are taking!" The daily mocked.

The Times said that the Central Command often brags about their laser-guided missiles and shows dramatic videos that follow precision-guided bombs as they hit their targets precisely to reduce “collateral damage,” but the CENTCOM fell short of showing films about the buildings destroyed, the civilians killed and the land devastated.

“Yet accidents are bound to happen. The electronic packets that turn smart bombs into dumb bombs with the help of signals from global positioning satellites (GPS) can always conk out, or the fins that manoeuvre the bombs can malfunction.

“Errors can be made in entering the coordinates of a target. The accuracy of laser-guided munitions can be degraded by pilot fatigue or poor visibility,” it added.

“Some cruise missiles have clearly gone wildly off course. Two fell in eastern Turkey, two landed in Saudi Arabia, and three reportedly hit Iran. A guided bomb aimed at a bridge hit a bus carrying civilians,” the daily said.