Times Online October 06, 2006
Reporter 'shot by US military on way to hospital'
By Steve Bird
A British SAS soldier told an inquest today of the moment he saw a US tank open fire on an ITN vehicle carrying the journalist Terry Lloyd.
Revealing for the first time that the elite special services regiment had witnessed the shooting, the soldier said he watched as Lloyd, 50, and his Lebanese interpreter Hussein Osman came under fire on March 22, 2003.
The inquest in Oxford also heard that the injured father of two was later fatally shot in the head as he was driven to a hospital.
Named only as Soldier B and giving evidence from behind a screen, he said he was up to 500 metres away when he saw three vehicles come under fire from the American tank during the start of the Iraq war in Basra.
Lloyd and cameraman Daniel Demoustier were in the first vehicle, the second was an Iraqi pick-up with a machine gun mounted on the back and the third vehicle contained Frec Nerac, a French cameraman, and Mr Osman.
Soldier B said the tank started shooting at the Iraqi pick-up and the two vehicles began an exchange of fire lasting 30 seconds. The pick-up then burst into flames.
"Vehicle One (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," he said.
Soldier B continued: "During the engagement, two people got out of the rear vehicle from each side - the passenger and driver - and dashed about 20 metres and took cover.
"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.
"Once there was no further movement in the area and the threat had been taken out, the firing stopped."
He said he reported what had happened to his superiors and was told to go and inspect the wreckage.
He went back eight hours after the gunfight, which he said took place around 8.15am to 8.30am local time.
He said he found no bodies or evidence of anyone injured in Mr Nerac's and Mr Hussein's vehicle
.In the Iraqi pick-up truck, he said, he found three charred bodies and another body - fitted with a gas mask and thought to have been the gunner - outside.
Lloyd's vehicle was not mentioned. Nerac is still classed as missing.
Reports at the time suggested Lloyd was first struck by an Iraqi bullet and then by "˜friendly fire'.
Nicholas Walshe, an ITN journalist asked by the broadcaster to investigate how Lloyd died, said one credible witness told how he had picked up Lloyd in a minibus and was ferrying him to hospital when the vehicle was comandeered by Iraqi troops to pick up their casualties.
He said: "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."
At this point, the Coroner asked Lloyd's daughter Chelsey, who has attended the inquest throughout, whether she would like to leave the court in view of "distressing" evidence about to be heard.
Anthony Hudson, representing the family, replied: "As distressing as this is, she wants to know as much as possible."
Mr Walshe said the witness then told him: "Terry was then shot in the head by US troops while the vehicle was leaving the scene.
"He showed the hole in the vehicle where he said the bullet passed through. Two Ba'ath (Saddam Hussain's party) soldiers were also shot on the bus with the same calibre weapon."
The inquest was adjourned until Monday
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