A five-year wait for inquests on the fallen heroes

Relatives of soldiers and airmen who perished in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months have been told they will not get the official verdict on how they died until 2012.

The huge delays - which are lengthening despite Labour's promises to cut the red tape that is causing them - have been criticised by bereaved families.

Graham Knight, whose son Benjamin was among 14 airmen killed when an RAF Nimrod exploded in mid-air last September, has now petitioned Tony Blair to speed up the process.

Mr Knight, 55, said: "The inquest will give us the opportunity to ask awkward questions because there are still many things unanswered.

"To make people wait this long is almost cruel. It is an agonising wait and it elongates everything."

Backlogs have built up because the law states inquests must be held at the coroner's court nearest to where the body arrived back in the country.

That means all inquiries into deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan have gone to Oxford coroner's court, near the RAF base at Brize Norton.

The number of deaths in the queue for inquests there is thought to be 25.

Some families may have to wait even longer than five years, as since Sergeant Knight died on September 2 a further 15 personnel have been killed in Afghanistan and 25 in Iraq.

The number of British troops killed in Iraq since hostilities began now stands at 140. In Afghanistan, the figure is 52.

Tory defence spokesman Gerald Howarth said: "These delays are absolutely ridiculous. The Government needs to take action to deal with it now.

"These inquests are very important to the families both to understand what happened and to give them closure.

"Of course inquests need to be carefully prepared, but the families and the public are being short-changed."

Ministers have responded to criticism by drafting in three deputy coroners and extra administrative staff to assist Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner.

Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, is also pushing through a reform to cut the link between where the body arrived and the town where the inquest is held.

Ministers have also arranged for the bodies of some servicemen to be returned to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

This should reduce the burden on Oxford coroner's court.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was hoped that all inquests into deaths before January 2006 would have been held by July.