TV reporter unlawfully killed by US troops in Iraq

ITN reporter Terry Lloyd was unlawfully killed by US forces working in southern Iraq, a coroner has found.

Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said he would write 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 Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman and French cameraman Fred Nerac, near the Shatt al Basra Bridge outside Iraq's second city of Basra on March 22, 2003, the coroner said.

Mr Lloyd was shot in the back 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 formedical treatment.

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

During the eight-day inquest into the Derby-born reporter's death, 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 cameraman Daniel Demoustier's 4x4