A DEVASTATED father whose son was killed in the Iraq War has announced that his child “died in vain”.

Reg Keys, whose son Tom died in the second Gulf War, made the claim following the publication of the Chilcot Report, an 8000-page document scrutinising the controversial conflict which saw 14 Welsh servicemen lose their life.

Lance Corporal Tom Keys from Llanuwchllyn was one of six military policemen slaughtered by a mob of 400 in Majar al-Kabir – 120 miles north of Basra – in June 2003.

Overall 179 soldiers were killed as a result of the much-maligned war, with many political commentators suggesting that the absence of Saddam Hussein encouraged a power vacuum which led to the formation of terror group ISIS.

Delivering the findings of the inquiry on Wednesday 6 July, Sir John Chilcot said the UK chose to join the invasion before the “peaceful options to disarm Iraq had been exhausted”.

The inquiry also concluded that circumstances on the legal basis for war were “far from satisfactory”.

Mr Keys, who was living in Llanuwchllyn at the time of his 20-year-old son’s death, was dismayed, but not shocked, by the report’s findings.

Following a seven year wait for publication, Mr Keys told assembled press: “I look at Iraq on the TV screens right now and I see the 200 plus deaths that took place the other day, I can only conclude that unfortunately and sadly my son died in vain.

“Now we’ve had the endorsement of a thorough robust inquiry which has confirmed all our family’s fears that these young men and young women were deployed on the basis of a falsehood.

“Now we’ve had the backing of Sir John [Chilcot] in our beliefs and it has now been documented, it’s given us a launchpad to go forward and yes, search for more answers.”