News anchor apologises for 'mistake' in claiming he came under enemy fire in Iraq

An anchor for NBC News in the US has apolgised after claiming he had been on board a military chopper which had been shot down in Iraq - a claim which turned out to be untrue.

Brian Williams, who presents the Nightly News show, had previously said he and his camera crew had been on a Chinook helicopter which came under enemy fire in Iraq in 2003, being hit by two rockets and gunfire.

He repeated the claim on Friday, when he reported a tribute, held at a New York Rangers hockey match, in honour of a retired soldier who had acted as security for the grounded helicopters.

In reality, Williams had actually shown up an hour after the helicopters came down, and had been travelling in a different Chinook.

He has now issued an on-air apology for the gaffe.

Some of the serving soldiers who were at the scene in Iraq almost 12 years ago took to Facebook to refute his story.

One of the men, Lance Reynolds, said he had been on the helicopter which came under fire and remembered Williams not showing up until around an hour after they landed.

Another commenter, Chris Simeone, said he was the pilot of Williams' actual helicopter.

As well as issuing the on-air apology, Williams also took to the social networking site to reply to their comments, confirming he had been wrong and had made a "mistake".

He said watching the video repeatedly over the years and the "fog of memory" had tricked confused his own memories of what happened.