Sir Trevor McDonald wiped away a tear as he told a coroner yesterday how he had waved goodbye to his close friend, the war correspondent Terry Lloyd.

Two days later Sir Trevor learnt from a cameraman how Lloyd, 50, had been killed in March 2003 on the road to Basra, nicknamed the Highway of Hell. The war was only days old.

Two weeks later Sir Trevor, who was the main news anchorman for ITN coverage from Kuwait, had the painful duty of identifying the body of his awardwinning colleague of 20 years.

“He was a very keen journalist,” he told Andrew Walker, the coroner, at an inquest in Oxford. “Inactivity didn’t suit him. My abiding memory was that he was anxious to get on. He knew it was probably going to be a difficult (assignment) but he seemed to have worked out a way of doing it and was happy about it.”

Sir Trevor said that he had waved farewell to Lloyd, a father of two, in an underground car park at an hotel in Kuwait as the reporter set off for Basra.

He added: “Terry Lloyd was a journalist’s journalist. He was very professional. He regarded every job as a special assignment. He was utterly dedicated and his experience was valued not only by ITN but by his colleagues and people who came into contact with him.”

Sir Trevor told the inquest that Lloyd was one of the few journalists not embedded with coalition troops and was working as the leader of a “unilateral” team of four. At a breakfast before Lloyd set off across the border, he had explained how he was “anxious to get going”.

But Sir Trevor added: “He was not a risk-taker. He didn’t take unnecessary risks. He was keen to do his job and was very aware of the safety of himself and others.”

Chelsey Lloyd, 24, his daughter, listened attentively. Lloyd was married to his wife, Lynn, for 29 years.

The reporter was feared to have been hit by “friendly fire” while caught in his minibus during crossfire between American troops and Iraqis.

Addressing the Lloyd family through their counsel, Anthony Hudson, the coroner expressed his deepest sympathies and apologised for the delay in beginning the inquest proper. “Myself and others have made strenuous attempts to secure information from the US forces,” he said.

Mr Walker said that he would be reading statements from two US military personnel given on that condition that they would not be identified. The US authorities have prevented the Lloyd family from seeing the statements, amid suspicion that his vehicle was hit by a US gunship.

The remains of Hussein Ossman, Lloyd’s Lebanese translator, were found weeks later and Fred Nerac, another member of the crew, is still officially listed as missing.

The inquest is also expected to hear from ITN investigators who were sent to Basra after the Ministry of Defence had allegedly failed to answer questions about what had happened. The inquest was told that ITN had been in touch with the Ministry of Defence but that Geoff Hoon, who was Defence Secretary at the time of Lloyd’s death, had been “extremely limited” in what information he would volunteer.

Stewart Purvis, who was editor-in-chief and chief executive of ITN at the time, said: “I came to the conclusion that the British military knew more than they passed on to us.”

He added that ITN, with a duty to the Lloyd family, had conducted its own investigation, sending two journalists to Basra.

Campaigners have suggested that Lloyd survived the initial attack near the Shatt al Basra bridge and was being taken to hospital by an Iraqi when that vehicle was allegedly strafed by the Americans — a war crime.

Mr Purvis said: “I came to the conclusion that there was some sort of British presence at the bridge. I am not sure if it was regular forces or special forces or some electronic view of the scene. But because of that, little information was coming from the British. The situation only changed when the feeling began to grow that this may become a war crime and the British were involved.”

The inquest continues.

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