Mother blames MoD for sapper Mark Smith's death

The mother of a British soldier killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan today blamed the Ministry of Defence for his death.

Sapper Mark Antony Smith, 26, died in the Sangin area of Helmand province on July 26 2010 after a smoke screen shell fell 264 metres from its target.

At his inquest last week coroner Roger Hatch called the Ministry of Defence’s investigation into his death “unsatisfactory” and called for a statutory inquiry to examine “systemic failures”.

Sapper Smith’s mother Helen said she fears she will never know what happened to evidence that could have helped shed light on the circumstances of her son’s death but which went missing.

She said: “Investigators requested that two smoke shells be brought back because the propellant in them could possibly have been degraded, but we’ll never know because they were quarantined and sent somewhere else.”

She said she had received “no support” from the MoD. Ms Smith also said she feared other service personnel were at risk of dying because of friendly fire unless the incident was “properly investigated”. Sapper Smith, from 36 Engineer Regiment, had served in Afghanistan previously in 2007 and in Iraq in 2003. He had been at home with his mother in Swanley, Kent, on rest and recuperation leave just 11 days before he was caught in the blast.

Ms Smith, 46, who works as a social worker for Bexley council, said: “He told an anecdote about how he had got shot at and had a hole in his rucksack where the bullet had gone through, and it had also made a hole in the water bottle. All he was worried about was his cigarettes getting wet because it had gone through the water bottle... He was a man’s man.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Our thoughts remain with Sapper Mark Smith’s loved ones at this difficult time. This was a tragic accident. Lessons have been learnt, including ensuring that a minimum safety buffer zone of 500 metres is established before firing smoke rounds.”