Videotape shows U.S. "friendly fire" on British convoy in Iraq: report

A British newspaper revealed a videotape on Tuesday, showing how a U.S. A-10 tankbuster opened "friendly fire" on a British convoy in Iraq in which a British soldier was killed.

The videotape revealed that the American pilots involved realized immediately they had fired a missile at a convoy of British armored vehicles, saying "God dammit" and "We're in jail, dude," said Britain's biggest-selling tabloid newspaper The Sun.

Lance Corporal Matty Hull was killed near the southern Iraqi city of Basra on March 28, 2003 after a U.S. fighter jet opened fire on British soldiers, which also seriously injured four other British soldiers.

According to the report, the British vehicles were carrying orange overhead canvas panels used to identify Coalition forces to aircraft, but one of the American pilots said they could have been orange rockets and then shot at the convoy.

A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement: "A copy of the video was used as evidence by the Board of Inquiry's (BOI) investigation into the incident."

"This recording is the property of the United States government and the MoD does not have the right to release it without their permission," he said.

"When the BOI findings were released to the family we did inform them that some classified material had been withheld, but we did not specify its exact nature. There has never been any intention to deliberately deceive or mislead (Lance Corporal) Hull's family," the spokesman added.

According to Sky News, an inquest into Hull's death was adjourned last week after the coroner said he had "no choice" but to delay his verdict until the recording of the incident was produced by the government.

Britain, the U.S.'s staunchest ally in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, stations the second largest number of troops, following the United States, in the battered country.

Currently, Britain has some 7,000 troops in southern Iraq, mostly in the Basra area and about 800 in Maysan province. Since 2003, 131 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua