Leading article: Missing in action: honesty and humanity between allies

Accidents happen, in war as in peacetime, but "friendly fire" accidents are among the most distressing because they seem so pointless. The best that can be hoped for is that they are kept to a minimum, and the only way to do this is to ensure that each and every death is thoroughly investigated, and the lessons learnt. In the case of Lance Corporal Matty Hull, who was killed when two US aircraft mistakenly fired on his convoy in the first weeks of the Iraq war, investigations were conducted by the relevant military bodies in Britain, as in the US.

This is not, however, where their obligations stop. The authorities, military and civilian, also have a duty to be honest with the bereaved family about exactly what happened. It is a duty that is moral, as well as judicial. That the relatives of many servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan have had to wait so long - and in some cases fight - for the clarity they should have been accorded as of right is nothing short of a disgrace.

The experience of Lance Corporal Hull's widow, Susan, has been particularly bitter. In common with more than half of all Iraq war widows, she had to wait almost four years for the inquest into the death of her husband to be opened. When it finally got under way, it was adjourned by the coroner, Andrew Walker, last Friday because he needed authorisation to air the cockpit video of the US pilots in action - and British officials refused point-blank to give it without first obtaining clearance from the Americans. Two further facts are also pertinent. The coroner had sight of the video only because he had received a copy "unofficially". And second, Mrs Hull had previously been told such a video did not exist.

Few in positions of authority emerge from this saga with any credit. British officials clearly talked to their US counterparts about releasing the video, but, so far as we can judge, with lamentably little urgency or persistence. If they did not actually lie to Mrs Hull about the supposedly non-existent video, they were scandalously economical with the truth. US officials were, as is their wont, unduly formalistic, citing legality and national security to cloak what looks rather more like national embarrassment. As for the American pilots, the gung-ho irresponsibility that emerges from the transcript is exceeded only by their terrified remorse.

An honourable exception to all the buck-passing and pusillanimity is Mr Walker, Oxfordshire's assistant deputy coroner, who vented his frustration about the video last week. He has been fearless in calling officials to testify and in deploring the refusal of the Americans to send their soldiers to testify at inquests. It was he who ruled that the ITN reporter, Terry Lloyd, had been unlawfully killed by US forces. And yesterday, well before the US authorities had lifted their objections, he had decided that the cockpit video was now in the public domain and could legally be shown in court.

It will be easy now for ministers to claim this obvious solution would have been agreed anyway, and with fewer frayed tempers, if everyone had shown a little patience. Forgive our doubts. Had the coroner not received a copy of the video "unofficially", had another copy not found its way into the public domain via The Sun newspaper, how long would it have taken for Lance Corporal Hull's inquest to reach its conclusion? More to the point, would his family have ever learnt the truth?

This case was described yesterday as a "real test for UK-US relations". We disagree. It was a test of honesty, common sense and humanity - a test which, until the eleventh hour, and until they felt the intense pressure of outraged public opinion, officials on both sides of the Atlantic had grievously and shamefully failed.

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