LONDON, Aug 23 (AFP) - The mother of a 19-year-old Briton killed in a roadside blast in Iraq moved Monday to sue Prime Minister Tony Blair's government for failing to care for its warzone soldiers, a report said.
The lawsuit being prepared by the family of Gordon Gentle would be the first time the British government has been sued over the death of a soldier in combat, The Guardian said.
Gentle, who had served with the Royal Highland Fusiliers, died in June when a bomb exploded in Basra, the southern Iraqi city under British control.
His mother Rose held a stormy meeting last week at Downing Street to protest against the war, walking out abruptly and accusing Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott of "talking rubbish".
She argues that her son's death could have been avoided had his patrol unit been equipped with signal-jamming equipment which would have blocked the detonation of the bomb, The Guardian reported.
The Gentles have hired lawyer John Cooper, who defended the families of four soldiers who died from bullet wounds under unclear circumstances between 1995 and 2002 at the Deepcut army barracks in Surrey, southern England.
Cooper said Sunday he was "optimistic" about the strength of the Gentles' case.
"There seems to be a culture within the MoD (defense ministry) of insensitivity when it comes to dealing with the families of deceased servicemen and women," he said.
"The MoD has a duty to provide soldiers with the equipment to protect themselves and carry out their duties with the minimum risk to themselves."
Rose Gentle and her 14-year-old daughter Maxine were invited to meet Prescott on Thursday.
They had come to complain that an official letter of condolence had arrived nearly seven weeks after Gordon Gentle's death, and delivered Maxine's protest letter calling Blair a "bad prime minister" and blaming him personally for the killing.
The mother has demanded that Britain withdraw all its soldiers from Iraq, and has accused the government of sending her teenage son to the country too soon after he had completed basic training.
Several groups, including top Greek lawyers from the Athens Bar Council, have taken their cases against Blair to the International Criminal Court, accusing him of crimes against humanity for waging war against Iraq.