Killing of soldier ruled 'unlawful'

The killing of a British soldier who died when a convoy was fired on by US tankbuster jets in Iraq has been ruled unlawful.

Lance Corporal Matty Hull, 25, was killed in the "blue-on-blue" incident near Basra on March 2003.

Detailed video footage with explicit cockpit audio, which had been controversially withheld from the court, was shown to the family, but not in open court.

The cockpit camera footage previously leaked to the Sun newspaper revealed the run-up and aftermath to the incident when the A-10 Warthog tankbuster attacked the convoy.

Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker described the incident as "entirely avoidable" and claimed that the "full facts" had not yet been made known.

The US administration did not provide a witness in the Coroner's court and the Ministry of Defence had declined to make the footage available until it was leaked to the Sun newspaper.

The friendly fire incident killed one British soldier and injured four others when their lightly-armoured Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle was hit with heavy cannon fire from an A-10.

American authorities have claimed that investigations into such incident are "thorough".

It emerged that one of the Air National Guard pilots thought to be involved in the incident is now an instructor at the A-10 flight school.

(SP/JM)