'Red Cap deaths could not have been prevented'
13 April 2012
An Army Board of inquiry into the killing of six Royal Military Police by a mob in Iraq today found "no conclusive evidence" that their deaths could have been prevented.
However the board identified several factors which it said "influenced events on the day" and issued a series of recommendations to improve communications, command and control, and the issuing of equipment on operations.
Its findings included:
- An instruction that soldiers should carry 150 rounds of ammunition each had not reached the RMP, who were only carrying 50 rounds.
- Radio communications in the area of the attack were "poor" due to environmental reasons and the RMP did not have a satellite telephone to back up their radios.
- Command relationships between the 1 Para battlegroup and the RMP platoon were somewhat "confused", which contributed to the uncertainty over the procedures governing the co-ordination and control of RMP patrols.
