ITN Journalist Was 'Shot In Head By U.S troops During Rescue'

Taken from the Daily Mail, 6th October 2006

ITN journalist Terry Lloyd was shot in the head by American troops as he was driven to safety during an Iraqi gunfight, an inquest heard today.

The evidence came from Nicholas Walshe, an ITN journalist who was asked to investigate what happened in the days following the 50-year-old veteran reporter's death on March 22, 2003, near Basra in southern Iraq.

Mr Walshe, working with private investigators from security firm AKE, said he spoke to a number of Iraqi witnesses who claimed to be at the scene when Mr Lloyd was shot.

One witness, he said, told him he had been driving a minibus from Al Zubayr when it was commandeered to pick up causalities from an Iraqi gunfight.

He told Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker that Mr Lloyd appeared to have been shot in the shoulder and had to be lifted into the minibus.

He said the witness then told him: "Terry was then shot in the head by US troops."

Mr Walshe said the witness had subsequently sold the minibus to the Royal Military Police to investigate further.

He told the Coroner: "He seemed very credible. He claimed two Iraqi fighters commandeered his vehicle to recover casualties.

"This particular witness... said Terry appeared shot in the shoulder and his arm was broken.
"He had been lying in the sand between two lanes of the road and walked to the car but was too weak to get in it without help."

He said the witness told him he had a Press pass with him, which was white and issued by the Kuwaitis, but the witness did not recognise the photographs of the ITN team when he was shown them.

Mr Walshe said the witness had subsequently sold the minibus to the Royal Military Police to investigate further.

He told the Coroner: "He seemed very credible. He claimed two Iraqi fighters commandeered his vehicle to recover casualties.

"This particular witness... said Terry appeared shot in the shoulder and his arm was broken.

"He had been lying in the sand between two lanes of the road and walked to the car but was too weak to get in it without help."

He said the witness told him he had a Press pass with him, which was white and issued by the Kuwaitis, but the witness did not recognise the photographs of the ITN team when he was shown them.

The inquest then heard from a British soldier who gave evidence from behind a screen to protect his identity.

He told the coroner he had seen the episode from a vantage point some distance away.

He said he saw three vehicles - understood to be that of Mr Lloyd and cameraman Daniel Demoustier; that of French cameraman Fred Nerac and Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman; and an Iraqi pick-up truck with a machine gun mounted on the back.

He said he saw a brief exchange of fire between the Iraqi pick-up truck and a tank, before the pick-up truck burst into flames.

He told the coroner: "My recollection is that the tank engaged the vehicles."

He said: "Vehicle one (Mr Lloyd's vehicle) also ignited and went off to the side of the road to its right and came to rest on the side of a field, burning."

The coroner asked: "Did you see anyone leave that vehicle?"
He replied: "No."

He added that he saw two people get out of the rear vehicle (that of Hussein and Nerac), one from the driver's side and one from the passenger's side, then run about 20 metres to take cover.

He said: "The tank continued to fire at the position where the people had taken cover. I couldn't see them but I could see it firing in that direction for a maximum of a minute."