Iraq friendly fire death "criminal": UK coroner
By Peter Graff Fri Mar 16, 2:45 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A British coroner ruled on Friday a U.S. friendly fire air strike that killed a British soldier was "criminal," a scathing verdict in a case that has exposed rifts between the
Iraq allies.
A U.S. A-10 tankbuster attack plane killed Lance Corporal Matty Hull by firing on his vehicle near Basra in the first week of the 2003 invasion, after the American pilots mistook Hull's British convoy for Iraqis.
"The attack on the convoy amounted to an assault. It was unlawful because there was no lawful reason for it and in that respect it was criminal," coroner Andrew Walker said, recording a verdict of "unlawful killing."
He said the planes were not in danger and the incident could not therefore be justified as self-defense.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack disputed the coroner's findings.
"We certainly would not agree with any conclusion that categorizes this as a criminal act," he told reporters in Washington. "There was a terrible tragedy. There was an unfortunate chain of events that led to the actions that resulted in the death of this individual during a time of war."
Washington has said its own investigation into the incident exonerated the pilots. An earlier British military probe concluded "procedures were not followed" because the planes opened fire without seeking clearance from ground controllers.
The case has been covered extensively in British media, where the issue of friendly fire deaths has been vivid since the first
Gulf War in 1991, when another U.S. A-10 killed nine British soldiers in a mistaken attack.
British commentators have said Hull's death -- and the Pentagon's insistence no one was to blame -- demonstrate that rules for U.S. pilots allow them to be more gung-ho than their British comrades.
Washington does not publish the "rules of engagement" that explain when its forces can fire, but strongly denies they behave irresponsibly.
REMORSE
In a cockpit video, the U.S. pilots are repeatedly told there are no friendly forces in the area. They can be heard convincing themselves that orange panels -- meant to mark the British vehicles as friendly -- were in fact orange Iraqi rocket launchers, before they open fire without seeking permission.
The coroner and Hull's family have repeatedly accused Washington of trying to hide details from the inquest. At one point Walker suspended the inquest when Washington refused to allow him to see the cockpit video.
The inquest resumed after a British newspaper leaked the video, and Washington later said the coroner could see it. But parts of the transcript of the U.S. probe remained blacked out.
Hull's widow said she did not want criminal or disciplinary action to be taken against the American pilots.
"I hope that they are at peace with themselves and they can move on in their lives," Susan Hull told reporters. "I'm sure that they are feeling remorse for what they did."
Britain's Ministry of Defense said in a statement it was carefully considering the coroner's comments and apologized for the "confusion and upset" caused over the handling of the video.
Susan Hull said the lack of cooperation from the United States throughout the trial had been "very disappointing."
No American witnesses gave evidence.
But the video footage -- which was played out on television -- gave a graphic account of the incident. One of the pilots could be heard weeping after they realized what they had done.
"We're in jail, dude," one of them said.
(Additional reporting by Michael Holden, Paul Hughes and Katherine Baldwin)