Iraq death man 'planned to leave'

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A security guard killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq had concerns about the company he was working for and planned to return home, an inquest has heard.

Kenny Clarke, 39, from Brynmawr, Blaenau Gwent, was escorting lorries carrying ammunition north of Baghdad when his vehicle hit a landmine.

The explosion in June 2006 killed the former Parachute Regiment corporal and two others inside.

A verdict of unlawful killing was returned at the Newport inquest.

During the hearing, Mr Clarke's wife Karen told how her husband was just days away from returning to the UK.

The coroner was told Mr Clarke had joined the armed forces at the age of 21 and had served in Kosovo and Iraq before he retired in 2001.

After being unable to find a job in the UK, Mr Clarke started work as a security guard with Securiforce in Iraq.

Mrs Clarke said the work mainly involved transporting food and medical supplies.

Six months later, he started work with Rover Global Services where he was in command of a small unit employed to guard ammunition convoys, the court was told.

Mr Clarke was working as a security guard in Tikrit

"He wasn't too happy with the circumstances surrounding the job, and the way the convoys were run," said Mrs Clarke.

The coroner David Bowen said to her: "He expressed concern to you as to the way things were going out there, in particular the personal weapons being issued to him to carry out his job."

Mrs Clarke told the hearing how her husband had planned to return home on 13 June with the intention of staying in the UK or returning to his previous employers, Securiforce.

But just two days before he was due to return home, Mrs Clarke received a faxed letter from Rover Global Services that he had died in an explosion caused by "a roadside improvised device".

The managing director of Rover Global Services, Robert Ryan, said in a statement read to the court that documents about Mr Clarke's death could not be found as the in-country manager at the time had since left.

However, he said he was aware Mr Clarke had been leading a convoy of five vehicles that stopped at an American ammunition camp north of Baghdad on the night of 10 June.

Dangerous area

He said after they left the camp the following morning, the front vehicle struck a landmine, blowing up the vehicle.

In the statement, Mr Ryan described the area as "dangerous", and said the road was "well-known to the enemy".

"Everyone, including Mr Clarke, knew the dangers of working there," said Mr Ryan.

Medical tests showed Mr Clarke had died from massive extensive full-body burns and his identity had to be confirmed by DNA tests.

The coroner said: "The type of work he was doing was extremely hazardous.

"You only have to turn on the television every day to see how hazardous it is.

"No part of the country is safe."

He said the device would have been laid by insurgents, with the "express aim of killing, or at least seriously maiming".