London, July 19: Weapons expert David Kelly apparently killed himself by slashing his left wrist, the British Police said today. Confirming that the body found yesterday was that of Kelly, suspected to be the source behind BBC's report that the Blair government had "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons capabilities, police said the postmortem revealed he died because of a cut to his left wrist.
"The cause of death was haemorrhaging from a wound to his left wrist. The injury is consistent with having been caused by a bladed object," acting Superintendent David Purnell of Thames Valley Police said. Faced with intense criticism, Blair, who is currently on a visit to Japan and has ordered an independent judicial inquiry into the incident, said, "We should make our judgement after we get our facts."
Blair also refused to be drawn when asked if defence secretary Geoff Hoon or his communication's chief Alstair Campbell would resign over the affair.
"I don't think it is right for anyone, ourselves or anybody else to make judgements until we have facts," he said adding the inquiry "will get to the truth of what has happened".
"This is an absolutely terrible tragedy. I'm profoundly saddened for David Kelly and for his family. He was a fine public servant who did an immense amount of good for his country in the past and I'm sure would have done so again in the future.
Kelly's wife reportedly said he was stressed and "very, very angry" about being caught in the controversy. Bureau Report