MoD apologises over Snatch Land Rover death in Iraq

After years of campaigning and a legal battle that went to the Supreme Court, Susan Smith has received an apology from the Ministry of Defence for the death of her son, Private Phillip Hewett.

Hewett was killed by a roadside bomb while in a lightly armoured Snatch Land Rover, the ninth of 37 service personnel to die in the vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"He didn't die for nothing," Smith told the BBC.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In his written apology, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said that the UK government "entirely" accepts the findings of Sir John Chilcot's July 2016 report into the Iraq war in relation to Snatch Land Rover, the Daily Telegraph reports. Chilcot made it clear that the Ministry of Defence knew about the vehicle's vulnerability and failed to provide more heavily armoured vehicles.

"I would like to express directly to you my deepest sympathies and apologise for the delay, resulting in decisions taken at the time in bringing into service alternative protected vehicles which could have saved lives," Fallon wrote.

Soldiers dubbed the vehicles "mobile coffins" because of the vehicle's lack of armour. Jocelyn Cockburn, a lawyer for the families concerned, told The Guardian that the Ministry of Defence's stance of "delay, deny and defend" has caused "untold suffering to already grief-stricken families over a needlessly long period".