BRITISH hostage Linda Norgrove could have been killed by a US grenade explosion during an attempt to rescue her in Afghanistan, Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Elite troops discovered Norgrove mortally wounded on Friday after fighting through small-arms fire as they stormed a family compound in Korengal, a no-man’s land n the northeast of the country.
Officials had said that intelligence reports from the scene suggested she most likely died after one of her captors detonated a suicide vest.
Mr Cameron corrected those reports at his delayed monthly news conference in Downing Street.
"General Petraeus has since told me that the review has revealed evidence to indicate that she may not have died at the hands of her hostage takers, as originally believed
"That evidence, and subsequent interviews with the personnel involved, suggest that she could have died as a result of a grenade detonated by the task force during the assault."
Mr Cameron added that a full US and UK inquiry was underway.
Ms Norgrove had been held in a small hut in a mud-walled compound near a hamlet known as Danish Fal.
At least six insurgents died in the raid, which had been triggered by fears that she was about to be moved across the border into Pakistan.
Ms Norgrove, 36, was working with an American organisation to improve the water supply for farming families.
She was kidnapped with three Afghan colleagues on September 26 after their vehicles were ambushed. MI6 and American special forces discovered her whereabouts early last week.
