FAMILIES OF TROOPS KILLED IN IRAQ CONSIDER CHILCOT OUTCOME:
FAMILIES of soldiers from Runcorn and Widnes killed in Iraq were among those awaiting the findings of the Chilcot inquiry due to be published yesterday.
The report follows seven years of gathering and reviewing evidence, examining the period starting in summer 2001 to the end of July 2009.
Sir John Chilcot, inquiry chairman, issued a statement at 11am yesterday, issuing a procession of bombshell findings. telling those present that the UK Government committed to war ‘before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted’, adding that the circumstances in which the decision was made that there was a legal basis for military action were ‘far from satisfactory’. However, the military and civil service had asked for more clarity on legality of use force, with the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith telling them that ‘ on balance there was a legal basis’.
Mr Chilcot said that judgements about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction ‘were presented with a certainty that was not justified’ by the Government of Tony Blair. He added that Iraq policy was based on ‘flawed intelligence’.
The risk of strife and the presence of Al Qaeda were already present in Iraq before the conflict, he said, and that planning for the aftermath was ‘wholly inadequate’.
He said the Armed Forces ‘fought a successful military campaign’ and showed ‘considerable great courage in the face of considerable risks’ and that they ‘deserve our gratitude and respect’.
The Ministry Of Defence had been slow to respond to the threat of improvised explosive devices, he said.
Britain lost 179 troops during the Iraq war.
Halton suffered fatalities during the conflict and the aftermath due to causes including enemy action.
Sergeant Graham Hesketh, 35, of Runcorn and 2nd Battalion The Duke Of Lancaster’s Regiment, died due to injuries suffered during an improvised explosive device (IED) blast on a roadside in Basra City on Thursday, December 28, 2006.
Lance Corporal Paul Farrelly, 27, grew up in Runcorn, and died after a roadside bomb exploded while his routine Land Rover patrol was under attack in the Al Jezaizah district of north west Basra on Sunday, May 28, 2006, while serving in the Queen’s Dragoon Guards.
Sergeant Norman Patterson, 28, of Widnes, of the Cheshire Regiment and SAS, died in Baghdad on Thursday, January 4, in a collision described as an ‘accident’ by the Ministry Of Defence.
Former Royal Marine Paul McGuigan, 37, whose family live in Runcorn, was murdered by a colleague while working in private security for G4Sowned ArmourGroup on August 9, 2009.
Relatives of Armed Forces personnel killed in Iraq were invited to Sir John Chilcot’s public statement on Wednesday morning at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London.
During his statement Mr Chilcot said the intervention in Iraq ‘ended a very long way from success’ and ‘went badly wrong, with consequences to this day’.
He said: “Military action may have been required at some point, but in March 2003, there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein. The strategy of containment could have been adapted and continued for some time the majority of the Security Council supported continuing UN inspections and monitoring.”