An Iraqi family living in Britain are reported to be planning to sue the government over the deaths of ten relatives during a wartime coalition raid on Basra.
Businessman Mr Mazin Hamoodi is considering suing the Ministry of Defence after losing three generations of his family when their home was accidentally bombed during the Iraq conflict, The Sunnewspaper said.
It is believed the legal action would be the first taken by civilians against the British government for its role in a war.
Lawyer for the Hamoodis, Mr Imran Khan, said he believed his client had a solid case and was seeking legal aid to bring it to court.
"It is early days, but the application will be made," he said, adding that the case would test the very legality of the Iraq conflict.
"If the intelligence which resulted in the deaths of these 10 people was bad, and effectively the authorities went ahead and bombed this family, that would suggest to me that the war was illegal," he told the paper.
The MoD declined to comment specifically on the possible legal action, but said it sympathised with the Hamoodi family at what it recognised was a "difficult time".
But it said it was confident its troops had acted "legally and properly on this occasion", adding: "We will defend robustly any action arising from loss caused by the conflict."