Seven British soldiers shot dead by single crack sniper in Iraq

A heroic British corporal was shot in the back by a crack sniper who has claimed the lives of six other British soldiers in Iraq, an inquest heard yesterday.

The sniper, probably using a high-velocity American rifle, is still at large.

There were reports in May that the sniper could target Prince Harry should he be deployed in Iraq.

The inquest at Trowbridge in Wiltshire heard that Corporal Rodney Wilson, 30, was killed after he ran out into heavy gunfire to pull a colleague to safety during urban fighting with insurgents in Basra on June 7.

Cpl Wilson, of 4th Battalion The Rifles, was the 150th UK serviceman to die in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

Second Lieutenant Charles Kilner, who was also hit in the operation, told the hearing that Lance Corporal Jonathan "Frenchie" LeGalloudec was screaming in pain after being shot in the lower back.

He said "Will", as Cpl Wilson was known, beckoned him to help carry the wounded man.

Lt Kilner said: "The next thing I knew was that I had been hit in my left arm, with which I was carrying L/Cpl LeGalloudec - at which point I looked over and Cpl Wilson was already on the floor.

"I fell to my knees. It appeared to me that he had been shot in the neck."

Weapons expert Edward Wallace said forensic analysis showed that the bullet which killed Cpl Wilson, based at Bulford, Wiltshire, was fired from a weapon that had already killed six other UK servicemen.

It is almost certain that the gun, probably American, was fired by the same individual.

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, Wiltshire Coroner David Masters said Cpl Wilson and Lt Kilner approached L/Cpl LeGalloudec "unconcerned for their own safety despite the enormous danger".

Cpl Wilson's father Richard and fiancee Michelle attended the inquest.

Afterwards Mr Wilson, from Fareham in Hampshire, said: "It is no surprise to me that Rodney did what he did. I wish he had not done it but if he had not, he would not have been the man I knew.

"I am hugely proud of him. I am just incredulous that I played a part in producing a lad like him."

Mr Wilson said he had since met L/Cpl LaGalloudec, who is still recovering from his injuries.

He said: "Frenchie told me, 'As soon as I was hit, I knew I was going to be all right because Rodney would come to get me'."

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Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Sanders, commander of 4 Rifles, said: "Where Cpl Wilson led, others would always follow. He was, in the words of his own Riflemen, 'a legend'."

Cpl Wilson and 4 Rifles were at the time based at Basra Palace.

They were involved in some of the fiercest urban fighting of the campaign as they fought in an operation led by 2nd Battalion The Royal Welsh to root out insurgents and seize firearms in readiness for the palace to be handed over to local control in September.

Captain Charles Maxwell, of 4 Rifles, told the inquest he had feared earlier that night that there might be a "friendly fire" incident after seeing a Royal Welsh gun laser on his chest.

He was hit twice in the right arm a short time later.

"I still cannot work out where that round had come from," he said, adding: "Knowing what I know now, I am 99 per cent sure it was not fired by friendly forces."