The first known victim of blue on blue, or friendly fire, Terry Lloyd (RIP)

 

(Source: Wikipedia, downloaded 5/14/2017)

 

Terence Ellis Lloyd (21/9/52-22/3/03) was an English TV journalist who reported extensively from the Middle East. In 1988 he broke the news that Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons in Halabja, killing 5,000 Kurds. He was killed by the US military while covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq for UK’s ITN.  An inquest jury in the UK returned a verdict of ‘unlawful killing’ on 13/9/06 following an eight-day hearing.

 

The Royal Military Police (RMP) carried out an investigation into the incident.  An RMP investigator testified at the inquest that a videotape of the incident, taken by a cameraman attached to the US unit that killed him, had been edited before it had been passed to the investigators.  About 15 minutes was missing.

 

 

 

The ITN team were driving two cars clearly marked as PRESS.  F. Nerac and H. Osman were in the car behind Terry Lloyd and Daniel Demoustier. They encountered an Iraqi convoy at the Shatt al Basra Bridge in Iraq.  Nerac and Osman were made to get into an Iraqi vehicle.  US forces shot at the convoy, killing Osman.  Nerac’s body has not been recovered.

 

Lloyd and Demoustier, still in the PRESS car, were caught in crossfire between the Iraqi Republican Guard and US forces. Lloyd was injured slightly and was put into a civilian minibus that had stopped to pick up casualties.   US forces shot at the minibus after it had turned to leave, killing Terry Lloyd outright. Demoustier survived.

 

The National Union of Journalists said Terry Lloyd’s killing was a war crime.  Depite the verdict at the inquest, the Crown Prosecution Service decided in July 2008 that there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute Lloyd’s killers, although the names of the 16 US marines are known to the RMP.