Six British soldiers have been picked off on the streets of Basra by an enemy sniper using the same rifle, an inquest heard today.

Between the months of March and June last year, six soldiers were shot using high velocity bullets fired from exactly the same gun.

The revelation, which was attested by forensics experts, raises the possibility of a single super-marksman stalking British troops on the streets of the southern Iraqi city.

Rifleman Aaron Lincoln, 18, of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, was one of the victims. His inquest in Spennymoor, County Durham, today heard that he was killed in April 2007 by a single bullet to the head that smashed through his protective glasses and helmet.

Ann Kiernan of LGC Forensics told the court that it had been fired from the same gun than had killed several other soldiers in the Basra area last year.

“There had been six incidents from March to June where projectiles have all been discharged from the same rifle,” she said.

She added that the bullets were manufactured in America by Lake City Arsenal, an arms manufacturer.

Coroner Andrew Tweddle said Ms Kiernan “has been able to corroborate and confirm that this single weapon in Basra has been responsible for a number of fatalities”.

He recorded a narrative verdict of unlawful killing, adding that Rifleman Lincoln was shot by enemy fire.

“He sustained a single gun shot wound to the head,” he said. “This 5.56 mm, US-manufactured round, was not fired by friendly forces.”

It was reported at the time of his death that Rifleman Lincoln died in an ambush as he went to the assistance of a wounded colleague in a building in the al-Ashar district of Basra. The deaths of several other British servicemen shot dead around the same period followed a similar pattern.

Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. W. Maciejewski, Rifleman Lincoln's commanding officer, said that the young man had lived to serve his country and for his friends.

Speaking for the family, Arthur Lincoln, a former soldier himself, said that his nephew had been in Iraq for only three months.

Major Tom Holloway, a spokesman for British forces in Basra, said today that he was not aware of the case of Rifleman Lincoln or of a specific sniper operating in Basra.

"Obviously we're alert to the threat (of snipers) and we have drills we conduct but I'm not going to tell you what they are," he said.

But a former Army officer who served in Basra during the period in question said that he and his colleagues always knew that they were being targeted by snipers.

"We never saw them but that is the whole point about a sniper. He scores a hit with his first or second round and that's it: you can't see the firing point," the officer, who did not want to be named, told Times Online.

"It is a surprise that the same rifle was used but we were definitely aware there was sniping. We expected a sniper every time we came out of the gates."

In 2006, US forces were plagued so persistantly by sniper attacks in western, predominantly Sunni Baghdad, that they came up with a nickname for their attacker, Juba.

Sunni insurgents played off the fear inspired by the crack shot, releasing a short film with English subtitles depicting Juba, his face pixellated to conceal his identity, writing of his exploits and explaining the skills and religious faith needed to be a top marksman.

The film featured footage taken by the insurgents of dozens of American soldiers being hit by sniper fire on patrol, often riding shotgun on armoured vehicles.

The guerrillas claimed to have formed a sniper brigade which received its instruction in part from an American sniper manual, called "The Ultimate Sniper," written by a retired US army major.

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