Families hope for closure as Chilcot report into Iraq War to be published
Families of Yorkshire soldiers who died in the Iraq War are hopeful for closure today - as the Chilcot report is released later.
Families of Yorkshire soldiers who died in the Iraq War are hopeful for closure today - as the Chilcot report is released later.
The results of the 7 year inquiry into the conflict will be presented to bereaved relatives in Westminster at 11 this morning.
Tina O Neill's husband Kris was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2007.
He was just 27 years old and left behind two young children.
Tina's hoping the Chilcot Report will bring closure:
"I think it'll give myself and other families final closure about what actually happened and why we went there. He loved doing his job and that was what he was doing when he was out there but now I think more about it, maybe they shouldn't have been there."
"the children were really young when he died - it's been really hard bringing them up on my own. I don't think they really understood it at the time but as they get older they do cry and say they miss their dad."
"It shouldn't have happened - we'll see what happens but I think it'll give us final closure to be able to move on. I take comfort in the fact that he died doing the job that he loved. I don't regret him going out there because that's what he signed up to do."
There's been criticism of the author of the report Lord Chilcot due to the amount of time it's taken to release the findings of the inquiry, which started in 2009.
Sheffield veteran Richard Parker was left partially disabled by an explosion during the war.
He's looking forward to drawing a line under the conflict:
"For myself I just hope it's got the truth in and people can start putting this to bed in a way, and move on with their lives. All I can say is I'm sorry for the families that did lose sons and family members - must be horrendous. Let's just go forward together."
"I'm just waiting myself to look at it and hopefully get a good read from it - let's just hope the truth is in it. Naturally we'd like to see in layman's terms why we went out there."
Richard lost three of his regiment in the Iraq War - he says the report should bring closure:
"If you can put closure to something you can move on. For the families it must be horrendous - it must be nice to in one sense not hear about it all the time. To be able to look at the report and hopefully get what they need from the report and move on with their lives."
"To lose somebody so close is a terrible tragedy and yet you can never get those people back. I just hope it can help rebuild in a way or finally help to rest the people who've lost. And then they can just carry on in a better way."