The family of the ITN reporter Terry Lloyd demanded today that the "trigger-happy cowboys" responsible for his death be tried in a British court for murder after a coroner ruled that he was unlawfully killed by US Marines in Iraq.
The ruling was made by Andrew Walker, the Assistant Deputy Coroner for Oxfordshire, after an eight-day inquest that examined all available evidence of Mr Lloyd's death near the southern city of Basra soon after the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Walker said that he would be writing to the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions "to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators responsible for this to justice".
Mr Lloyd, 50, was killed, together with Hussein Osman, a Lebanese interpreter, and his French cameraman Fred Nerac, near the Shatt al-Basra Bridge on March 22, 2003.
The veteran war reporter was hit in the back by an Iraqi bullet after getting caught up in US and Iraqi crossfire, then shot in the head by American forces as he was taken away in a minibus for medical treatment.
"I have no doubt that it was an unlawful act to fire on this minibus," the coroner said.
Concluding the inquest, Mr Walker praised the dedication and professionalism of the ITN reporter and said no blame should be put on to ITN News over its preparations before the mission to Iraq.
Mr Walker said it was his view that the American tanks had been first to open fire on the two TV trucks and an Iraqi pick-up vehicle with mounted machine gun that had intercepted them.
He added that had Mr Lloyd died following a shot fired in the first stage of fighting, even though he was travelling in a clearly-marked TV vehicle, he would have conceded that the American act was one of "self-defence" and would not consider it an unlawful act
But he said that the first wound Mr Lloyd received "was, with appropriate skilled medical attention, survivable" - and in fact the Americans had opened fire on the minibus even though it "presented no threat to American forces" since it was a civilian vehicle, had stopped and turned around to pick up survivors, and was facing away from the US tanks.
Mr Walker added: "If the vehicle was perceived as a threat, it would have been fired on before it did a U-turn. This would have resulted in damage to the front of the vehicle. "I have no doubt it was the fact that the vehicle stopped to pick up survivors that prompted the Americans to fire on that vehicle."
Speaking outside the inquest in Oxford, this morning, Mr Lloyd's family and a Belgian cameraman, Daniel Demoustier, who survived the exchange, demanded justice.
In a statement read by Louis Charalambous, a family solicitor,, the reporter’s widow Lyn said: "This was a very serious war crime, how else can firing on a vehicle in these circumstances be interpreted?
"The evidence on how Terry Lloyd was unlawfully killed has shown that this was not a friendly fire incident or a crossfire incident, it was a despicable, deliberate, vengeful act, particularly as it came many minutes after the initial exchange.
"US forces appear to have allowed their soldiers to behave like trigger-happy cowboys in an area where civilians were moving around. The Marines who fired on civilians and, importantly, those who gave the orders, should now stand trial.
"Under the Geneva Conventions Act that trial should be for the murder of Terry Lloyd and nothing else."
The reporter's daughter, Chelsey Lloyd, also spoke out. She said: "We have waited for three and a half years to hear the truth of how and why my father died whilst trying to report the war for millions of viewers back home. The killing of my father would seem to amount to murder which is deeply shocking."
Reacting to the ruling, a Pentagon spokesman said that an investigation into the incident was completed in May 2003 and determined that US forces followed normal rules of engagement.
He added: "The Department of Defence has never deliberately targeted non-combatants, including journalists. We have always gone to extreme measures to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage.
"It has been an unfortunate reality that journalists have died in Iraq. Combat operations are inherently dangerous and we do not take lightly our responsibilities in the conduct of these operations.
"We do not, nor would we ever, deliberately target a non-combatant civilian or journalist."
During the eight-day inquest, Mr Walker heard how Mr Lloyd and his team had crossed from Kuwait into Iraq as one of ITN’s few unilateral teams, where journalists work independently of the Armed Forces.
Their brief was to travel towards Basra, interviewing civilians in the wake of the coalition troops on their feelings about the conflict. But they crossed over the frontline in the fierce battle for Basra and ran into Iraqi soldiers.
According to local witnesses, Mr Osman and Mr Nerac were arrested and put into an Iraqi pick-up truck with a mounted machine gun, which then opened fire on Mr Lloyd and M Demoustier's 4x4 vehicle.
American tanks lined up along the road then began to fire on the entire convoy, until first the Iraqi pick-up then Mr Lloyd’s 4x4 burst into flames.
Mr Demoustier returned to the inquest to tell how, as "all hell broke loose", he drove his burning vehicle blindly forwards before turning to find Mr Lloyd had disappeared.
Dr Thomas Warlow, a ballistics expert, said that Mr Lloyd was first hit by an Iraqi bullet fired from the pick-up truck, which he could have survived with rapid medical treatment.
But he was then hit in the head by an American bullet as he was taken for medical treatment in a civilian minibus, which killed him outright. His body was recovered and returned to his family in Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, while the remains of Mr Osman were later found and buried. Mr Nerac is still officially classed as missing.
The Lloyd family has also complained that video footage from the day of the incident supplied by the US military had been cut. They say that 15 minutes of footage, including the moment of his death, is missing.
