SIX Red Caps killed by a mob laid down their lives to save unarmed Iraqi policemen, it was revealed yesterday.

As hundreds of heavily-armed militants launched an attack, the six British soldiers made a final stand as terrified Iraqi policemen fled for their lives.

Despite having only 50 rounds each and no way of calling in reinforcements, they stayed behind as the mob tried to storm the building.

They refused to fire indiscriminately into the crowd, even after the mob opened fire with AK47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

An inquest into the tragedy heard how the Iraqi policemen, who were mostly volunteers, fled from the attack, escaping through windows into neighbouring streets.

One of the Iraqi policemen said: "I did not want to leave, but I did not have a gun and I was afraid."

The witness, his identity kept secret for fear of revenge, was told by the Red Caps' commanding officer, Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell: "Don't worry about us, find yourself a safe place."

Despite the overwhelming odds he ordered his men to take up defensive positions in the police station.

Only three hours after arriving for a routine meeting with the town's chief of police on June 24, 2003, all six lay dead in a storeroom at the police station in the southern Iraqi town of Al Majar Al Kabir.

They were apparently mistaken for Paratroopers who had killed four local people during a riot in the town's market square earlier that morning, the Oxford inquest heard.

Sergeant Hamilton-Jewell, 41, died in the attack along with corporals Paul Long, 24, originally from South Shields, South Tyneside, and Simon Miller, 21, from Washington, Wearside, and Lance Corporal Ben Hyde, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

Corporal Russell Aston, 30, and Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, 20, also died in the attack.

They were all part of the 25 Royal Military Policemen attached to 1 Para Battle Group, which was training 1,100 Iraqi police officers and re-equipping police stations after the end of the war.

Witness statements from 16 Iraqi police officers and civilians revealed that eight suspects involved in the killings had been identified.

The witnesses said they repeatedly asked the assailants why they wanted to kill the Royal Military Policemen (RMPs).

One said: "The RMP were our friends. We had a good working relationship with the RMP, they were helping with the rebuilding of our station and with our police training."

He continued: "I asked them (the mob) again why they wanted to kill the soldiers. They told me that they wanted British weapons."

The soldiers' weapons have never been found.

Three of the Red Caps were playing football in the police station compound as hundreds of young men gathered outside.

As they were surrounded, their hosts, up to 30 Iraqi police officers, fled and hid in friendly households in case they were caught and killed as collaborators.

One witness said the militants peppered the police station compound with bullets for almost three hours.

Another said: "Suspect 3 pointed his weapon at my chest. I told him if they killed the British I would give evidence.

"They said if I did not leave, I would die."

The inquest continues.