Iraq friendly fire video to be shown in private

A cockpit video showing US pilots mistakenly killing a British soldier in Iraq will be played privately for his family and a coroner investigating his death, but not in open court, officials said yesterday.

The video was widely shown on television last week after a copy was leaked by the Sun newspaper.

One pilot could be heard saying "We're in jail, dude," after the air crew learned they had opened fire on a British convoy and killed a soldier, later identified as Lance Corporal Matty Hull.

British coroner Andrew Walker, who is investigating Mr Hull's death, had earlier suspended his inquest because the United States refused to allow the classified video to be shown. British and US officials denied trying to hide the video, and announced after it was leaked to the Sun that they were trying to declassify it for the coroner.

Coroner's office officials and a spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence said yesterday the inquest will resume. The video will still not be shown openly in court, but will be shown to Mr Hull's family, with the coroner and MoD officials present.

Washington says its own probe into the death exonerated the pilots, who opened fire wrongly believing that orange panels on top of the British vehicles, designed to identify them as friendly, were in fact, Iraqi missile launchers.

But a British military board of inquiry found that "procedures were not followed" because the pilots had not sought clearance from a ground controller to fire.