Military police are investigating claims that British soldiers mutilated the bodies of Iraqi insurgents after a firefight last month near the southern Iraqi town of Majar al Kabir. The allegations are contained in official death certificates seen by The Guardian written by Dr Adel Salid Majid, the director of the hospital in Majar al Kabir, on May 15, the day after the battle.
Seven of the certificates state that corpses handed over to hospital authorities by British troops showed signs of ”mutilation” and ”torture”.
Dr Majid’s conclusions have been questioned by a senior doctor at the Amara general hospital, 25km to the north. Speaking anonymously to The Guardian, he disputed his colleague’s claims after examining one of the seven corpses in question.
The military police are studying photographs of the bodies, the original death certificates and part of a video film taken at Amara hospital by the relatives of the dead.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said: ”The military police are looking at the evidence. They have yet to commence a formal investigation.”
A British army spokesperson in Basra dismissed the allegations of mutilation as ”absurd”.
”Such claims are an insult to the whole British army and an attempt to stain the image of men who are putting their lives at risk every day to secure Iraq for the Iraqis,” he said.
The Guardian has seen 28 death certificates, which were completed by doctors at Majar al Kabir hospital on May 14 and 15. A 29th victim of the firefight, a shepherd, died of his wounds later.
Most certificates list wounds that would seem consistent with a fierce firefight that is known to have taken place on the afternoon of May 14 on the Amara-Basra highway outside Majar al Kabir.
On one of the seven death certificates in question, Ahmad al Helfi, a 19-year-old casual labourer, is described as having ”several bullet injuries to the body, with blueness of the left eye and a cut-wound by a sharp tool on the right arm. In addition, there are signs of beating and torturing all over the body.”
Haider al Lami (21) also a casual labourer, had ”several bullet injuries to the body, with mutilation of genitalia”. His penis had been ”severed”.
Hamed al Suadi (19) is recorded as having ”bullet wounds to the neck and the foot. There are signs of torture: the right arm is fractured and there is full distortion of the face.”
Another, Ali al Jemindari (37) had ”several bullet injuries in head, face and the body, with slash marks on the neck. The right arm has been severed at the shoulder. There is a large opening in the right cheek and the removal by gouging of the right eye.”
The brother of Al Jemindari claims that the eyeball was subsequently found in the dead man’s pocket.
Dr Majid told The Guardian: ”On May 15, the police came and asked us to send ambulances to the British base to collect some bodies. When they brought the 22 bodies, it was a surprise to us to see some of these bodies mutilated and tortured.
”There was an angry crowd of relatives outside the hospital gates, so we examined the bodies at once and organised the death certificates. We don’t have a big refrigerator here so everyone took the death certificate and the body and buried their family members.”
But Dr Majid’s judgement has been questioned by a senior doctor at the Amara general hospital, where the bodies were first taken.
The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, examined the corpse of Ali al Jemindari. He said: ”What we saw on examination is multiple bullet entries and exits. Also I can say is his arm wasn’t severed like what was written on the form by Dr Adel [Majid]. His right shoulder was severely destroyed yet still the right arm was connected by some tissue. Also, you couldn’t say whether the right eye was removed after death or before. But such an injury might happen in war, perhaps a bullet came into his right eye and pressed it inside the skull. And as for the signs of slashing around his neck it could be another bullet passing very near to his neck caused that wound.”
The doctor hinted that Dr Majid had been under enormous pressure from angry relatives. ”This should not have been taken to Majar al Kabir hospital, or even here to Amara,” the doctor said. ”We have no forensic capabilities to speak of. The case should be sent to Basra, even to Baghdad if needed.”
The three-hour firefight, on the road from Amara to Basra, on May 14 between the soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Iraqi militia was one of the fiercest involving British troops in Iraq. The battle was a clear-cut military victory for the British forces. Two soldiers were lightly wounded, and one young soldier who took part is reportedly being considered for a gallantry award.
The MoD says that 14 Iraqis are known to have been killed but admits there could have been more.
Witnesses said that between nine and 15 others were rounded up and taken to the British base near Amara, 20km to the north. The next day (May 15) at least nine were transferred to the Shaibah detention centre near Basra.
On May 14, the men of Majar had gathered for Friday prayers in the town’s central mosque. The imam, Khatib al Battat, denounced the fighting that had taken place the day before in Najaf between loyalists of the militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and US forces, damaging the golden-domed shrine of the Imam Ali, one of the holiest Shia sites.
”As the men left the mosque there was a mood of revenge,” Ali Jassam, a resident, recalled. ”The imam had asked them to show patience, but a few crazy men said they wanted to die for the imam Ali and Islam.”
Jassam said the men went home, took whatever weapons they could lay their hands on, and walked the mile to the Amara-Basra highway. There they spread out in the drainage ditches lining the road and lay in wait.
At around 4.50pm two Land Rovers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders passed on their way back to base near the city of Amara, 25km to the north.
According to British army accounts, the patrol fought desperately to escape the attackers — who were using machine guns, rockets and mortars — and called in armoured cars and tanks from the base.
On May 15 the British removed 22 bodies from the battlefield and took them and a number of live detainees with them to the base near Amara. This was not normal practice.
The army spokesperson in Basra said troops removed dead bodies from the scene of the battle ”out of respect for the dead, to stop their bodies from being eaten by wild animals and to aid identification”.
Dr Majid said that on May 14 the British had left behind six bodies at the battle scene, in addition to the shepherd who later died. These six bodies showed no signs of mutilation or torture, he said.
Asked why they had left behind six bodies at the battle scene, the army spokesperson said: ”Our forces continued to collect the bodies after dark. If any bodies were left behind, it would simply be because we missed them.”
But many in Majar al Kabir claim that at least some of those who died were alive when they entered the British base.
Abbas Jawad, the senior administrator of the emergency department at the general hospital in Amara, said: ”At 7:30pm on Friday May 14, a police major came and told me that there had been a call to police headquarters in Amara from the British base, telling them to bring ambulances to receive more than 10 injured people from the base. I sent three ambulances with three paramedics to the base. After about 45 minutes the ambulances came back and told me that they did not receive any injured, and that they received no information about them.”
The following afternoon [May 15], Jawad was again asked to dispatch a convoy of ambulances to the British base. It was to collect the corpses of those killed in the firefight. ”They brought the corpses to our hospital where there were thousands of people waiting,” he said. ”I remember this day; it was a real disaster, everyone was angry, especially when we opened the sacks to find these corpses mutilated and tortured.”
Since then, a CD carrying footage shot by a relative of the scenes from that afternoon’s events has been circulating in Amara and Majar al Kabir. As the bodies are unzipped from the bags at Amara hospital angry relatives shout at the camera, saying that the dead were alive when they went into the British base.
The camera then pans in on the blood-soaked corpses as they emerge from the bags, and fingers can be seen point ing at what they evidently believe to be signs of mutilation or torture.
The examination of the corpses began just after 4pm at the Amara hospital morgue. Doctors had inspected one body before an argument broke out at the gates.
It was between Karim Mahoud, also known as the Lord of the Marshes for his resistance to Saddam Hussein, and the police chief of Majar al Kabir, Mohammed Abhassan Imshani. Witnesses said the police chief lost his temper and drew a gun on Mahoud. In response one of Mahoud’s brothers allegedly shot and killed the police chief. (A Baghdad judge last week issued arrest warrants for Mahoud and two of his brothers, accusing them of the police chief’s murder.)
Angry family members demanded that all the bodies be taken back to the hospital in Majar al Kabir. It was then that their death certificates were completed by Dr Majid.
Additional reporting by Ali Fadhel – Guardian Unlimited Â