A 53-year-old British bomb disposal expert has been killed in a roadside ambush in northern Iraq.
Mr Ian Rimell, from Kidderminster, Worcestershire died and his local bodyguard was critically injured when they were attacked yesterday afternoon as they drove their vehicle along a main road to Mosul.
Mr Rimell, who worked for the British based charity Mines Advisory Group (MAG), and his bodyguard, were on their way home from work in a vehicle with the distinctive MAG emblem when they were attacked by gunmen.
Earlier in the day Mr Rimell had cleared a scrap heap filled with ammunition and hidden explosives. He later delivered the scrap metal for the rebuilding of a local school.
MAG has been in Iraq without interruption for more than a decade with 700 mainly local staff in northern Iraq. It is one of the few international aid agencies has stayed in Iraq providing humanitarian mine clearance and mine risk education throughout the conflict.
Mr Rimell, who was awarded a British Empire Medal, was married with three grown up children. He joined MAG in January this year after an already long career in mine and bomb disposal.
AP