Inquest told soldier Stephen McKee was killed in blast

A Shropshire-based soldier died after his armoured vehicle hit a bomb in Afghanistan, an inquest has heard.

Lance Corporal Stephen McKee, 27, was driving a Jackal across a dried-up river bed when the device went off.

The soldier, of the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, based at Tern Hill, near Market Drayton, was blown 15 feet from the vehicle during the blast.

Yesterday's inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, heard he died almost instantly from injuries suffered by the effects of the 50kg device.

Lance Corporal McKee's younger brother Michael, who serves in the same regiment, was one of the first on the scene after the explosion.

Three other soldiers inside the Jackal vehicle suffered minor injuries.

Lance Corporal McKee was on an operation to disrupt insurgents in the Dashte area of the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand Province on March 9 this year when he was killed.

The inquest heard the Jackal was providing support to colleagues searching for insurgent weapons in an Afghan village.

Soldiers had discovered bomb-making equipment and fertiliser – used by insurgents as an explosive – in the compound and seized them.

Captain Benjamin Davis told the inquest that the explosion happened on open ground in an area where other vehicle tracks could be seen.

"Local Afghan nationals had been driving across it all day and there was nothing to suggest there were IEDs," he said.

"There was no obvious danger signs."

Captain Davis said that had he, or any of his colleagues, been concerned by the IED threat they would have carried out bomb detection drills.

A post-mortem examination found Lance Corporal McKee died almost immediately from injuries caused by the explosion, which had gone off under the Jackal.

Mr David Ridley, the coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing while on active service in Afghanistan.

Lance Corporal McKee, from Banbridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland, had strong family connections with the regiment and had been in Shropshire since about 2007.

He leaves behind his wife Carley, his parents Heather and Bobby, his brothers Michael, Gareth and Robert, and his sisters Kelly and Rebecca.

Lance Corporal McKee is the second member of his family to die in the line of duty after his uncle, Richard, a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, was murdered by the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles in 1981.