Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been labelled the “world’s worst terrorist” by the sister of a soldier who died during the invasion of Iraq.
Sarah O’Connor, whose brother Bob served in the conflict, was speaking at a press conference following a release of the 12-volume Chilcot Report today.
She told a group of journalists: “There’s only one terrorist in this world that the world needs to be aware of and his name is Tony Blair.”
She added: “If he is so sure of his decision (to go to war), why isn’t he here?”
Another family member took the opportunity to challenge Mr Blair to a face-to-face meeting.
“I want him to look me in the eye,” she said. “I hold him responsible for the murder of my son.”
Roger Bacon’s son, Major Matthew Bacon, died when a roadside bomb exploded, hitting the vehicle he was travelling in, near Basra.
He said: “Never again must so many mistakes be allowed to sacrifice British lives and lead to the destruction of a country for no positive end.
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“We were proud when our husbands, sons and daughters signed up to serve our country. But we cannot be proud of the way our government has treated them.
“We must use this report to make sure that all parts of the Iraq War fiasco are never repeated again. Neither in a theatre of war, nor in the theatre of Whitehall.
“We call on the British Government immediately to follow up Sir John’s findings to ensure that the political process by which our country decides to go to war is never again twisted and confused with no liability for such actions.”
The emotional press conference also featured a number of questions centred around a potential future legal bid to hold several key government figures – including Mr Blair -responsible for the deaths of more than 170 British soldiers in the conflict.
Taking a question on whether the findings of the reports made it more or less likely that legal action could be taken, Matthew Jury, of McCue and Partners – the group representing 29 families of those lost in the war, would only say that further actions were “possible”.
He said: “The families have waited a long time for today to come. They have acted with patience, courage and dignity throughout this entire process.”
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He said those who were criticised in the report “knew what was coming” and had time to prepare statements and defences.
In a statement, Mr Jury said: “The three hours the families were given this morning is not long enough for anybody to properly take in two and a half million words, or even a 150-page summary.
“Today is a day the families should be at the forefront of everybody’s minds. But so too should be the thousands of British soldiers wounded in Iraq, the tens of thousands of British veterans who served there, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who died during the conflict and since.”