AN ARMY officer just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq was seriously injured in a brutal racist attack after being mistaken for a foreigner.

Lieutenant Richard Moger, 26, serves with the Royal Regiment of Wales, which has recently lost three of its soldiers to a roadside bomb in Iraq.

The former Ledbury and Bromyard rugby player suffered a broken jaw in the unprovoked attack and it will have to be wired for six weeks.

He had gone for a drink with a German friend, who speaks perfect English, when it is believed he was mistaken for a migrant worker.

His mother Sue, of Aylton, a teacher at the Elms School in Colwall, said: "If he was attacked because people thought he was a foreign worker, that is appalling.

"But you hear a lot of instances like this, where people attack other people for no good reason at all.

"Perhaps the drink culture is part of this."

Lt Moger was assaulted in the George and Dragon pub in Bewdley Street, Evesham.

Mrs Moger said: "He did not talk to the young man who attacked him and was totally unaware of the young man's presence in the pub.

"Had the assailant actually communicated, it would have been self-evident that my son is English.

"But that aside, is this really how foreign visitors would have been treated? And what a welcome home for a young man serving his country."

Family friend Elspeth McPherson said she had seen Lt Moger after the attack and he was feeling "very low".

She called the attack lunacy and said that in her experience as a Learning and Skills worker helping migrant workers, local antagonism towards them was not uncommon.

Lt Moger comes from a family with a proud military history. His grandfather is General Sir Patrick Howard-Dobson and his father is Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Moger.

His assailant is described as six feet tall, with a bald or shaved head. Police are investigating.