SCOTLAND YARD is investigating the “friendly fire” shooting of a tank commander who was the first British soldier to die in the Iraq war.

The murder squad inquiry into the death two years ago of Sergeant Steven Roberts has been ordered by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney- general.

The incident is already an embarrassment to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) because Roberts had not been wearing body armour that might have saved his life.

Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, apologised to Roberts’s widow, Samantha, after it emerged that the soldier had been ordered to give his armour to a colleague because of an equipment shortage.

Roberts, 33, from Shipley, Yorkshire, was serving as a tank commander with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, near Basra when he was shot in the stomach and chest in March 2003. At the time he was trying to fend off an Iraqi who had attacked him during a riot.

Detectives have been told that although the riot seemed to be dying down, another soldier is said to have pulled out a pistol and fired at the Iraqi.

The Iraqi was killed but a stray shot apparently hit Roberts by mistake. The soldier is alleged to have ignored the army’s rules of engagement.

Soldiers in two tanks near the incident, including an officer, allegedly failed to take appropriate action. The body armour that Roberts should have been wearing was allegedly burnt after the shooting.

The case took on a political dimension when Samantha Roberts accused Hoon of failing to ensure British troops had sufficient body armour. In an audiotape made the evening before he died and which his widow later released, Roberts described the lack of equipment as a “joke”.

Police inquiries have so far established that 11 of Roberts’s colleagues were in the area at al-Zubayr, near Basra, at the time of the shooting. They have all been questioned by military police.

Sources close to the investigation say four soldiers could face manslaughter charges. Senior police officers are to visit Samantha Roberts shortly to get her side of the story.

Geraldine McCool, Samantha Roberts’s lawyer, said she was due to meet MoD lawyers to discuss compensation. The department has accepted liability in a case which could see compensation being paid to the families of other soldiers who died in Iraq. McCool said her client could be entitled to as much as £500,000 in lieu of salary her husband would have earned.

The Roberts case is the latest involving British soldiers in Iraq. Up to 50 are believed to be facing possible prosecution for offences ranging from murder and manslaughter to assault and other crimes.

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