Anti-Scud Missile Fired by Mistake : Gulf deployment: The Patriot rocket exploded harmlessly outside a Turkish NATO base used to launch raids on Iraq.

A Patriot missile was fired by mistake today from a giant NATO air base in the south, a Turkish military spokesman reported. The base is being used by U.S. planes for raids on Iraq.

The ground-to-air missile blew up harmlessly in the air, said Lt. Col. Hasan Kesebir, a spokesman for the military chief of staff’s office in Ankara.

He said the $1-million missile’s mechanisms locked and it was accidentally fired during a routine check.

Two merchants near the base said they saw a second missile fired. But Kesebir and a U.S. official said there was only one.

A U.S. spokesman at the joint Turkish-American base, Lt. Jim Fallin, said: “A Patriot missile self-destructed after it was launched today from an air base in Turkey.” He said an investigation was under way, and no further details were available.

Journalists near the giant NATO base at Incirlik saw the missile rise into the sky shortly after warplanes approaching the base dropped two objects that were flaming and smoking.

The objects appeared to fall 1,500 feet from a neighborhood in Adana, near the base.

Police and troops began an immediate search of the area. One officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some ashes had been found near the neighborhood.

“Just when (the plane) was descending over the city, two lights went down from the wings. They were like glare-bombs you throw at night, but they were big,” said Ismet Imset, a reporter for the English-language Turkish Daily News who observed the incident.

“There was black smoke behind them. They were going down straight. Immediately after this happened, the Patriot was fired.”

A nearby resident, Cenk Bulut, said he believed that the falling objects were bombs.

The U.S. aircraft that dropped the objects was one of the last of about 30 flying into the Incirlik base at the time. Their bomb pods appeared to be loaded.

According to an unofficial count by reporters, hundreds of planes have taken off from Incirlik and returned hours later without their bombs.