Soldier's father: Where was the back-up?

The father of one of the British soldiers murdered by enraged Iraqis said today the men were not given enough back-up.

Reg Keys, whose son Lance Corporal Thomas Richard Keys, 20, was among six Royal Military Police officers killed in Majar al Kabir on Tuesday, said the mission appeared to have had little support from headquarters.

His claim came as it was revealed the Red Caps' sergeant, Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, was a decorated former SAS soldier who fought his way back to fitness after an ankle injury to become a military policeman.

Sgt Hamilton-Jewell and his men were trapped by the crowd in the town's police station after a demonstration against weapons searches.

The men pleaded with the mob to calm down and begged for mercy by showing photographs of their wives and children. Sgt Hamilton-Jewell stood in a doorway between his men and the crowd in a bid to protect them.

The senior officer in charge of the British operation in southern Iraq, Major General Peter Wall, has pledged to bring to justice those responsible.

But Mr Keys, from North Wales, wants to know whether the British "softly softly" approach to patrols, with helmets and flak jackets not used, was fatally flawed. He said: "It is not clear, but it would appear that they sent these six young men into a police station to do a job in a hostile country with hostile elements with very, very little support around them.

"To think that they could get trapped with no immediate support to call upon is of some concern to me."

L-Cpl Keys's mother Sally said: "It was a waste of my beautiful boy."

Local doctor Firas Fassal, 26, who discovered the bodies, appeared to endorse the concerns when he said a large British force had arrived outside the town during the fighting.

"There must have been 25 tanks and armoured vehicles and between 50 and 100 soldiers," he said. "They stopped about a kilometre from the station and I thought it strange that they did not go and help their people."

Eyewitness Ali Al-Ateya, 36, said: "The British showed photographs of their families. They hoped this would save them, but it did not."

Today British planes dropped leaflets over Majar al Kabir expressing regrets for the killings on both sides - but warning that troops would return soon. They promised that there would be no reprisals.