The families of six army redcaps killed in Iraq have reacted angrily to a recently unearthed memo which suggested some of their loved-ones could have been rescued.

Chessington Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, was one of the men killed by a 300-strong mob in Iraq in June 2003.

Since then, all the families have been campaigning to find out precisely what happened and get justice for the men.

The memo, sent by the MOD to one of the victim's family, suggests some of the men were held hostage by rebels who wanted the military out of the town and were still alive when rescuers arrived. Sergeant Hamilton-Jewell's brother Tony said: "I knew that was the case because I went out to Iraq myself to find out what had happened and I spoke to the doctor who said some of the lads were still alive.

"It has been one big cover up, as we said in October 2003 and this has proven that it is the case."

The MOD said the memo was released under the Freedom of Information Act and denied strongly any notion of a cover-up.

It maintained the findings of a 14-month inquiry that the deaths were unavoidable, even though the men had been sent into the town of Al Majar al Kabir with inadequate ammunition, defective radios and no information about a riot earlier on the same day.