THE first full account of the battle that killed the ITN reporter Terry Lloyd in Iraq emerged yesterday as colleagues gathered for his funeral in an English country church. The US Marine captain whose platoon fired on the reporter’s car said that he believed Iraqi suicide bombers were using television vehicles as a ruse to attack his men.

Mark Wood, ITN’s chairman, expressed anger at the British and American military for failing to trace two newsmen missing since the fight five weeks ago, and for failing to uncover the facts about how Mr Lloyd died.

ITN’s internal investigation, seen by The Times, shows that the US Marines say they opened fire because they thought they were being ambushed by fighters disguised as newsmen and civilians. Captain Greg Poland and his colleagues from Red Platoon have told ITN in Baghdad that they did see the “TV” markings on the sides of the ITN cars, but they suspected this was a trick because the cars were travelling at speed with an Iraqi truck filled with soldiers and a machinegun.

The young US Marines have endured sleepless nights since realising they may have killed journalists, and are hoping that scientific tests will show it was an Iraqi gunman who fired the fatal shot.

Mr Lloyd, 50, the first of 15 journalists to die in the Iraq war, was ITN’s longest-serving correspondent and the first to be killed in action in the organisation’s 48-year history.

He died on the third morning of the Iraq war, Saturday March 22, when hopes were still high of a swift and easy sweep by America and Britain towards Baghdad. Mr Lloyd and his team believed they were about to witness jubilant Iraqis welcoming coalition forces to Basra.

The reporter’s enthusiasm was recalled by David Mannion, ITN’s editor, at the funeral service in the church of St Nicholas in the Buckinghamshire village of Cuddington. The service was followed by a private cremation. In Mr Lloyd’s mind, mourners were told, there was only one thing worse than being sent to a war zone — not being sent to a war zone.

Five minutes before the fatal gunfight, Mr Lloyd was “singing at the top of his voice, thrilled that he was on his way to yet another exclusive”, Mr Mannion said.

Mr Lloyd was working as a “unilateral” journalist in Iraq. Unlike the “embedded” reporters, approved by the Ministry of Defence and living alongside the troops, he was free to report what and where he wished. He and his three-man team went through several coalition checkpoints and were given permission to continue towards Basra at their own risk.

Mr Lloyd and the French cameraman Daniel Demoustier were in the first of two ITN cars. Behind were Fred Nerac, a French cameraman, and Hussein Osman, a Lebanese translator. M Demoustier said: “Of course we saw tanks burning, we saw trucks burning — Iraqi trucks — helmets, lots of signs of heavy fighting from probably last night. But it looked like it was pretty under control now.”

Unknown to the journalists, the battle for Basra was far from over. The men were entering the most dangerous place of all: no man’s land.

Watching the desert motorway were four US tanks from Red Platoon of Delta Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, commanded by Captain Poland. They knew that the struggle for Basra was still going on, and had been warned of the risk of Iraqi suicide fighters in civilian clothes.

As the ITN crew approached a bridge, M Demoustier recalled: “We saw some Iraqi soldiers coming towards our direction. They were still carrying weapons. So I thought it was a better idea to do a ‘U-ey’ and turn back straight away, so that’s what we did. We turned back.

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