Seven soldiers 'killed by same gun'

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The soldiers were picked off one by one on the streets of the southern Iraqi city over a deadly period of several months.

A spokesman for the MOD said Rifleman Aaron Lincoln, 18, Kingsman Danny Wilson, 28, Kingsman Alan Jones, 20, Corporal Rodney Wilson, 30, Rifleman Paul Donnachie, 18, and two others who have not yet been named, were all killed by bullets from the same weapon.

But the MOD spokesman said he could not verify that a single gunman was responsible for the killing.

"We have been able to confirm that it was the same weapon, but there is no evidence to suggest that it was a single sniper as it were," he said.

Earlier, an inquest into the death of Rifleman Lincoln of the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, heard that he died from a single bullet wound while he was on patrol on April 2, 2007.

The court heard that the American-made high velocity bullet penetrated his protective glasses and helmet.

Ballistics expert Ann Kiernan, of LGC Forensics, told the court, in Spennymoor, County Durham, that it had been fired from the same gun that had killed several other soldiers in the Basra area last year.

"There had been six incidents from March to June where projectiles have all been discharged from the same rifle," she said. She added that the bullets were manufactured in America by Lake City Arsenal, an arms manufacturer.

Coroner Andrew Tweddle recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.