Military police were on Sunday investigating the authenticity of a series of photographs purporting to show British soldiers torturing an Iraqi prisoner outside Basra, amid suspicions that the pictures could be an elaborate set-up.
Officers from the special investigations branch began interrogating soldiers from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment at its base in Cyprus to establish whether anyone had taken the pictures.
The images show an unidentified squaddie kicking, beating and urinating on a hooded prisoner in the back of a truck. They were said to have been taken during eight hours of mistreatment after the Iraqi was arrested for stealing in Basra last year. But military experts and sources close to the regiment believe the pictures are suspicious.
A source close to the regiment told The Guardian that the pictures looked too pristine to have been taken by a soldier with a pocket camera. Other defence experts said the rifle in the photograph was an SA80 Mk 1 which was not issued to soldiers in Iraq and British troops on patrol wore berets or helmets not floppy hats like the one in the picture.
Piers Morgan, editor of the Daily Mirror which published the pictures, said he had no doubts about their authenticity. He said the newspaper was given the images by two serving members of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment and stood by its story that the prisoner was subjected to an eight-hour beating, during which he had his jaw broken and teeth smashed before being dumped from a moving vehicle.
On Sunday night the soldiers who gave the pictures to the Mirror detailed other incidents of brutality towards Iraqis and said hundreds of similar photographs have been taken and are swapped amongst squaddies in Iraq.
They told the Mirror: ”We stand by every single word of our story. This happened, it is not a hoax and the army knows a lot more has happened.” The Ministry of Defence said the authorities were not aware of other photos of prisoners being mistreated or of a culture of trading pictures.
”If people have got evidence of such activity, then they should bring it to the attention of the authorities. We won’t stand for activity like that,” the ministry said.
Nicholas Soames, the Tory defence spokesperson, questioned the Mirror’s decision to run the story. ”One has to wonder at the behaviour of the Mirror in publishing these pictures where there is clearly a question mark over their veracity,” he told BBC Radio Five Live. ”We need to be a little more cautious before rushing to judgement.”
While senior defence figures pointed out the apparent inaccuracies in the photographs, they said they had to take allegations of mistreatment of prisoners seriously. ”A full investigation is under way,” said Dennis Barnes, a spokesperson for the regiment in Cyprus. ”If the allegations prove true, the firmest action will be taken against anybody involved.”
In Cyprus, a source close to the regiment said: ”We are shellshocked, incredibly disappointed because we did such a good job there. When we went into Basra it was like a cowboy town and when we left there was a semblance of order about it.”
Military police were on Sunday checking logs of prisoner complaints filed last summer while the regiment was in Basra as part of their inquiry. If the inquiries at the regiment’s base prove fruitless, forensic tests are likely to be carried out to find out more about the provenance of the photographs.
Meanwhile, a torture scandal which has engulfed the US army deepened on Sunday when the general who was in charge of the Iraqi prison system alleged that the cell block where the abuse of prisoners took place was under the control of military intelligence. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was relieved of her command earlier this year, claimed the officers went ”to great lengths to try to exclude” the International Red Cross from the cells. Nine American troops were killed on Sunday in Iraq, six in a mortar attack on a base two hours’ drive west of Falluja.
Despite the doubts about the Mirror’s pictures, the MoD is faces questions over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by British troops. Amnesty International recorded four deaths of Iraqi prisoners in British custody last year and a catalogue of complaints from Iraqis about mistreatment.
Lawyers for the families of at least 18 Iraqis who were allegedly killed by British soldiers will go the high court on Wednesday to challenge the MoD’s refusal to pay damages and set up an independent inquiry.
There was further support for the claims of mistreatment by a serving officer yesterday. He said he was ”certain” that brutality like that in the photographs had taken place.
GMTV quoted the anonymous soldier as saying senior officers did not sanction beatings but were aware they took place: ”I think there was a nod and a wink to certain things. They did turn a blind eye to things, well no, not turn a blind eye, there were certain things which people were aware were happening.”
Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, would not be drawn on whether the allegations could lead to compensation for scores of Iraqis. ”I don’t think I should pre-empt the outcome of the investigation. But of course it follows that we will accept whatever obligations there are upon us,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â