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| Christopher Roney: Failures led to Apache friendly fire death | Christopher Roney: Failures led to Apache friendly fire death |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The death of a British soldier in a friendly fire attack in Afghanistan was due to "mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures", a coroner has ruled. | The death of a British soldier in a friendly fire attack in Afghanistan was due to "mistaken beliefs and cumulative failures", a coroner has ruled. |
| L/Cpl Christopher Roney was killed in 2009 when two US Apache helicopters attacked a British base in Afghanistan. | L/Cpl Christopher Roney was killed in 2009 when two US Apache helicopters attacked a British base in Afghanistan. |
| The inquest in Sunderland heard the crews fired 200 rounds before they realised their mistake. | |
| L/Cpl Roney, 23, from Sunderland, was serving in Sangin, Helmand, with the 3rd Battalion The Rifles. | L/Cpl Roney, 23, from Sunderland, was serving in Sangin, Helmand, with the 3rd Battalion The Rifles. |
| After a five-day hearing Coroner Derek Winter listed a series of errors leading up to the tragedy. | |
| He said: "The deployment and use by friendly forces of attack helicopters was done in circumstances that ought to have been assessed by them to conclude, sooner than they did, that their target was not an enemy force and that the attack should be aborted." | |
| The hearing was told the base had come under attack by insurgents when air support was called in. | |
| British troops on the ground were incorrectly identified as a Taliban compound and were hit by 30mm chain gun rounds leaving 11 injured. | |
| L/Cpl Roney, a married former drayman, received emergency treatment, but died from his injuries the next day. |