Sgt Roberts was the victim of 'friendly fire', the MoD found

Sgt Steven Roberts, 33, of Shipley, West Yorkshire, died in Basra in March 2003 when a colleague shot dead an Iraqi civilian and hit him.

Scotland Yard said Attorney General Lord Goldsmith had ordered an investigation into both deaths.

Sgt Roberts had given up armour that would have saved him, due to shortages.

The Second Royal Tank Regiment sergeant was killed while trying to quell a riot in Al Zubayr, near the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

He had standard body armour at the time, but had days earlier handed over enhanced armour with ceramic plates to troops considered more at risk, the Ministry of Defence reported in December 2003.

Pathologists concluded that the enhanced armour would have stopped the bullet that killed Sgt Roberts.

It's disheartening because we know we are going to go to war without the correct equipment Audio diary of the late Sgt Steven Roberts Shot soldier's poignant tapes

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said in January last year he was "extremely sorry" Sgt Roberts had lacked the enhanced armour.

At the time, the soldier's widow Samantha, 34, said Mr Hoon had "blood on his hands" and should resign.

She released an audio diary Sgt Roberts, originally from Wadebridge in Cornwall, had kept before his death, in which he described "disgraceful" shortages and called supplies to soldiers "a joke".

"Things we have been told we are going to get, we're not," Sgt Roberts said on the tapes.

"It's disheartening because we know we are going to go to war without the correct equipment."