An inquest into the slaughter of six Royal Military Policemen at the hands of an Iraqi mob has returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
The Oxford inquest has heard graphic evidence on the massacre in Al Majar Al Kabir, near Basra, on June 24, 2003.
Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner has also been given evidence of a series of operational failures and ignored orders in the run-up to the killings.
Corporals Paul Long, 24, originally from South Shields, South Tyneside, and Simon Miller, 21, from Washington, Wearside, and Lance Corporal Benjamin Hyde, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, died on June 24, 2003, in a ruined police station.
Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, Corporal Russell Aston, 30, and Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, 20, were also killed.
They had been part of the 25 RMP attached to the 1 Para Battle Group training 1,100 Iraqi policemen and re-equipping police stations following the end of the war.
The Coroner is to write to the Defence Secretary with a series of recommendations about equipment and procedures following the deaths of six Royal Military policemen at the hands of an Iraqi mob, he said today.
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