U.S. Pilots Unlawfully Killed Britons, Jury Says : Friendly fire: Families’ attorney says he’ll seek criminal prosecution in the Gulf War incident.

A British jury decided Monday that two U.S. Air Force pilots were guilty of the “unlawful killing” of nine British soldiers in an accidental air attack on their armored vehicles during the Persian Gulf War.

The deaths of the British troops by so-called “friendly fire” actually amounted to manslaughter, according to the lawyer for the families of the soldiers.

And the attorney, Mark Stephens, said he will ask that the decision by a coroner’s jury in Oxford be submitted to British government prosecutors in London for possible criminal prosecution.

The jury decided that the two U.S. pilots were guilty of “clear errors and failure to observe recommended procedures.”

U.S. military sources said they could not recall a case in which pilots had been subject to criminal prosecution for having made a mistake in wartime. They added that there is little chance that U.S. pilots would be extradited to Britain for alleged offenses committed during wartime in a third country.

Still, they said, the inquest and the attention it has gained could damage relations between Britain and the United States.

The families of the British soldiers had been angered over the U.S. Defense Department’s refusal to allow the two pilots to testify at the coroner’s inquest, held at the request of the next of kin in Oxford, near the air base to which the soldiers’ bodies were returned from the Gulf. A cause-of-death inquest is required for all bodies returned to Britain. The jury did not have the power to initiate criminal or civil charges.

The British tabloid press has paid much attention to the proceedings at Coroner Nicholas Gardiner’s hearing, with much of the media accusing the U.S. military of conducting a cover-up by not allowing the pilots to testify.

Stephens termed the pilots’ failure to appear “a matter of cowardice.”

U.S. Ambassador Raymond Seitz told the jury last week that his government did not want the pilots to travel here for fear that they would be made the center of a media circus.

Instead, the Pentagon released a 25-page account by the two A-10 pilots indicating they were told that the vehicles they had targeted with their Maverick anti-tank missiles were Iraqi tanks.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it would not comment immediately on the specifics of the case and then added:

“It is obvious that a terrible accident occurred in the fog of war on the battlefield and that the questions raised in this inquest and in other forums may simply never be resolved. We reiterate our deep compassion for the families and loved ones of these courageous soldiers who died defending the cause of freedom.”

The coroner’s inquest was the third attempt to find out what happened when the two A-10 aircraft fired on British Warrior armored vehicles during an allied offensive against Iraqi forces in Kuwait in February, 1991.

U.S. and British government investigations have produced conflicting explanations of what happened, but neither resulted in charges of any wrongdoing.

After Monday’s verdict in Oxford, some members of the victims’ families drank champagne in celebration and handed roses to the jurors. Anne Leech, mother of 20-year-old Kevin, one of the slain soldiers, declared:

“It is wonderful news--wonderful--and the verdict speaks for itself. For the moment, we are quite satisfied. It shows people how rotten we’ve been treated, and we hope it never happens to other people.”

She termed the British investigation into the incident last year a “travesty.”

Peter Atkinson, father of 19-year-old victim Paul, said: “We know now the American pilots were guilty--they are dishonorable men, and that is why they would not come to give evidence at the inquest.”

And Martin O’Neill, spokesman for the opposition Labor Party on defense matters, told Parliament on Monday, “The legal implications of this matter--the almost unparalleled decision--of unlawful killing, requires a (government) statement to be made.”