Leaked tape shows fatal US attack on British convoy

A cockpit videotape from a US plane that attacked a British convoy in Iraq, killing a soldier, was leaked and appears to show a catalogue of errors leading up to the strike.

A transcript of the tape records the US pilot, and another on the same mission, swearing and possibly weeping after they realise they have attacked coalition forces.

The British coroner investigating the death of the soldier, Lance Corporal Matty Hull, demanded last week that the Ministry of Defence allow him to play the tape at the inquest. MoD officials refused, saying they had not been able to get permission from US authorities to release the classified tapes.

However, the Sun newspaper said was a full transcript of the tape of conversations between the pilots of the two US A-10 jets and their ground controllers during the attack on March 28 2003. The paper also released the videotape itself.

L/Cpl Hull died in a burning armoured vehicle three days before his 26th birthday after the US planes opened fire on a Household Cavalry Regiment near Basra in southern Iraq.

Four other British soldiers were injured. In the transcript the two pilots - both believed to be reservists with no combat experience at the time - are identified only as POPOV36, who the Sun said was a lieutenant colonel, and POPOV35, a major. The former attacked the convoy despite apparent doubts as to whether it was made up of Iraqi fighters or coalition forces.

The MoD refused to comment on the contents of the tape. It appears to show that one of the primary mistakes was made by US ground controllers, who assured the pilots there were no "friendly" patrols in the area.

The paper said the two pilots were on a mission to destroy Iraqi artillery and rocket launchers north of Basra, and were circling at an altitude of 3,500 metres (11,480ft) when they spotted Iraqi vehicles and a British patrol.

As the pair looked at the British convoy, POPOV36 said twice that he thought he could see orange panels on the vehicles, an indication of coalition forces. But after a ground controller assured the pilots they were "well clear of friendlies", POPOV36 decided the orange panels were most likely rocket launchers and opened fire, with his colleague saying: "Get him, get him."

POPOV36 apparently saw wounded soldiers being dragged from the burning vehicles: "It looks like he is hauling arse. Ha ha." The pilots were then told by ground controllers that there were, in fact, "friendly" light tanks in the area, prompting a volley of swearing. They asked another ground controller about the fate of the convoy and were told one person was dead and another had been injured.

"I'm going to be sick," POPOV35 said, while his colleague swore again and made a crying sound. "Did you hear?" asked POPOV 35, and got the reply: "Yeah, this sucks". POPOV 35 then said: "We're in jail, dude."

L/Cpl Hull's family have said they were initially told no such tape existed. It first came to light when Andrew Walker, the Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner who is leading the inquest, said he had been handed a copy and wanted to play it before the hearing.

On Friday, after an initial deadline for the MoD to get permission to use the tape had passed, Mr Walker adjourned the inquest until March 12, giving the ministry a week to confirm it would allow the tape to be played. The coroner called the new delay "a matter of profound regret", adding: "I, just for my part, hope that those in authority recognise that at the heart of this inquest is a grieving family."

An MoD spokeswoman said that when the findings of a US military inquiry into the incident were released, it told the family that some classified material had been withheld, "but we did not specify its exact nature". "There has never been any intention to deliberately deceive or mislead L/Cpl Hull's family," she said.

The constitutional affairs minister, Harriet Harman, who called last week for US authorities to help the inquest in any way they could, today pointedly refused to condemn the leaking of the tape.

Asked whether it was right to leak the recording, she said: "I have always taken the view that what is important is that the families get all the information available to help them understand what happened.

"People do understand that, in armed conflict situations, terrible accidents do sometimes happen, but what I think people do not understand or accept is the notion that the truth should not be revealed." Ms Harman has held a series of meetings with the US embassy's deputy chief of mission, David Johnson, to urge that the tape be approved for use at the inquest.

Asked earlier why Washington had so far refused this, Mr Johnson said US soldiers were sent into combat under "a set of predictable laws which are established before the fact". "One thing I want to make very clear is our heart goes out to this family," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

"This is an extraordinary tragedy that they have endured and we are very sorry for what has happened.

"But I think that does not take away from the need to have a body of law which is followed and a set of expectations we can have our combat forces - yours and ours - go by when they go into battle."

Guardian Unlimited