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.

Ballistics expert Dr Thomas Warlow said 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 laterfound and buried.

Mr Nerac is still officially classed as missing.

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 went on 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.

He said: "In fact, the wound he received (then) was, with appropriate skilled medical attention, survivable."

In fact, he said, the Americans opened fire on the minibus even though, he was satisfied, it "presented no threat to American forces"