British Army takes inquiry over 'torture' photos to Iraq

By KIM SENGUPTA

LONDON - British Army investigators are taking their inquiry to Iraq in an attempt to find the alleged victims of the "torture" photographs published by the Daily Mirror.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed yesterday that an investigation into the pictures of alleged abuse shown in the newspaper would see investigators deployed in Iraq from Cyprus, where the Queen's Lancashire regiment is based, and the UK.

"Obviously we're going to try to find the alleged victims," a Ministry of Defence spokesman said.

Investigators would be trying to find records of complaints against British military officers to see if any of them matched the photographs.

"The Iraqi police may have details of any allegations held against us, the Coalition Provisional Authority may have records [of complaints]. There might be records held by the Royal Military Police," the ministry spokesman said of the investigations likely to take place in Iraq.

The controversial pictures purport to show a soldier urinating on an Iraqi prisoner and kicking him.

Amid further conjecture yesterday over whether the photos might be real, there was one suggestion that the pictures were actually taken by MoD investigators in a bid to reconstruct torture allegations.

"They might be real, they might be a re-creation," the spokesman said. "They could be an attempt to defraud the Daily Mirror, they could be a prank."

There were reports that ministry investigators might attempt to interview the editor of the Daily Mirror, Piers Morgan, over the photos. Military police will also examine pixellated photographs of the two "whistleblowing" soldiers purported to have given the newspaper the photos.

Defence sources say that although the photographs of the soldiers in the Daily Mirror were pixellated, the background of the shots could lead to their identification.

A spokeswoman for the Mirror would not comment on claims that the two soldiers, from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR), were paid for the photographs, or that the newspaper had made up to £120,000 ($340,000) from syndicating them.

The MoD urged the two soldiers to report their claims to the military authorities. But one of them may have been present at alleged abuse of the Iraqi and fears prosecution.

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said publication of the photographs would be disastrous for Britain's standing in the Muslim world, and could lead to suicide bombings, even if they were fakes.

Piers Morgan repeated he stood by the authenticity of the pictures.

Soldiers "A" and "B" claimed in the newspaper that troops serving in southern Iraq had swapped "hundreds of pictures" of abuse of Iraqi civilians. The two soldiers agreed to have their photographs in the Mirror, with their faces hidden.

Senior ministry officers are sceptical about the pictures. Tracing the two soldiers, they say, could settle whether or not they were staged.

Officers from the Royal Military Police Special Investigations Branch will be questioning members of the QLR, but the investigation is expected to take months. The RMP and RAF police are investigating 10 other alleged abuses of Iraqi prisoners by British troops..

Sources close to the QLR claimed the rifle, hats and truck seen in the pictures did not match those issued to men in Iraq, and queried why there was no sign of dirt or injuries on the body of the victim.

A former commander of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment dismissed the photographs as having "too many inconsistencies". Colonel David Black argued that the images were probably not even taken in Iraq.

He told the BBC the vehicle shown was never sent to the war zone and the uniforms were not the same as those worn by the regiment.

Black maintained the soldiers would have been wearing helmets or a beret not floppy hats as in the photos, would have had a regiment identification flash and a brigade flash on their sleeves and the rifle should have had a sling and an attached radio button.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq