Officer killed by roadside bomb

The inquest ruled that Lt Palmer was unlawfully killed

A British officer was killed when a roadside bomb blast engulfed his vehicle, an inquest has heard.

Lieutenant Richard Palmer, 27, of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, was leading a joint patrol with the Iraqi Army when his vehicle was caught in an explosion.

The inquest ruled that Lt Palmer, of Ware, Hertfordshire, was unlawfully killed by terrorists.

The patrol was travelling in a Land Rover, only 6km from Camp Campbell, near Ad Dayr, when the bomb went off.

Despite the efforts of his fellow soldiers to save him, Lt Palmer died of his injuries following the blast on 15 April 2006.

Lt Palmer's platoon had been warned about heightened tensions in the area as a result of anger among some Muslims following the appearance of cartoons depicted the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper the previous year.

'Unhesitating courage'

Warrant Officer Michael Halewood, of the Royal Logistics Corp, investigated the blast and told the court that a Warrior tank could have saved the dead man and his colleagues who were injured.

But the court heard from Major Angus Benson-Blair that a bridge to the area of the patrol was passable only by Land Rover.

The court also heard that Lt Palmer had been warned about a possible bomb in the area the day before the patrol.

He had taken a Snatch-type Land Rover out of Camp Campbell to investigate the reports but found nothing.

Giving his verdict of unlawful killing Assistant Deputy Coroner for Oxfordshire Andrew Walker said: "The unhesitating courage and unstinting grit of our troops is a credit to them."

After attending Haileybury School in Hertford and Durham University, he went on to Sandhurst and was commissioned into the regiment in August 2004.

He was made a troop leader in the regiment 'D' squadron, where he was said by colleagues to have demonstrated a "natural flair for tank commanding, remaining calm under pressure whilst dealing with a myriad of complications".