Mothers lose Iraq inquiry legal bid

A committee of nine Law Lords dismissed an appeal by Beverley Clarke and Rose Gentle, whose lawyers argued that the Blair government breached its duty to the men and women of the armed forces by failing to ensure in advance that the invasion was lawful and justified.

At a hearing in the House of Lords in February, Rabinder Singh QC said: "That duty is owed to soldiers who are under the unique compulsory control of the State and have to obey orders.

"They have to put their lives in harm's way if necessary because their country demands it. There is what some people call a military covenant between the State and those who are literally prepared to put their lives at risk for the sake of their country."

The case was brought against Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defence Secretary Des Browne and Attorney General Baroness Scotland.

The mothers challenged a Court of Appeal ruling in December 2006 that the Government was not under an implied obligation to order an independent inquiry under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the "right to life".

They said the Government's promise of an inquiry "when the time is right" was not good enough.

Trooper David Clarke, from Littleworth, Staffordshire, was one of two soldiers who died in March 2003 in a "friendly fire" incident west of Basra.

Fusilier Gordon Gentle, from Glasgow, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, died in June 2004 in a roadside bomb attack on British vehicles in Basra.

At the centre of the argument over whether the decision to invade was lawful was the families' demand for an explanation as to how 13 pages of "equivocal" advice from the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, on March 7 2003 was reduced within 10 days to one page of completely unequivocal advice that an invasion would be legal.