October 14, 2006

VETERAN ITN reporter Terry Lloyd was unlawfully killed by US troops in Iraq, an inquest ruled yesterday.

Coroner Andrew Walker said he would write to the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions to see if the soldiers responsible could be brought to justice.

Badly wounded Lloyd, 50 had been bundled into an Iraqi minibus after his clearly marked TV vehicle was caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi troops near Basra on March 22, 2003.

He survived being hit in the back by an Iraqi bullet but was then shot in the head by a US bullet as he was taken to hospital in the makeshift ambulance.

The coroner said that the minibus was of NO threat to the US troops and was driving AWAY from their tanks.

Mr Walker said: “I have no doubt that it was an unlawful act to fire on this minibus. I have no doubt it posed no threat.”

Lloyd’s Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman and French cameraman Fred Nerac also died in the incident.

After yesterday’s verdict in Oxford, Lloyd’s family, of Cuddington, Bucks, branded the US soldiers “trigger happy cowboys” who should face court.

The newsman’s tearful daughter Chelsey, 24, said: “The killing of my father would seem to amount to murder, which is deeply shocking.”

Lloyd’s widow Lynn, 52, said her husband’s death was a “despicable, vengeful act” which happened as he was being taken to hospital.

The Sun.co.uk