'Superiors Condoned UK Troops Beating and Abusing Prisoners' - Soldiers

British troops in Iraq were acting illegally by "hooding" prisoners, the Government was forced to admit yesterday. The Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, was forced to concede in the Commons that the practice of "hooding" had taken place illegally, but he said it had been stopped in September. Behind closed doors at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster, Labour backbenchers called for Mr Blair to restore confidence in Britain's Iraqi policy by resigning. Bob Marshall Andrews, a QC, and opponent of the war, said: "It is extremely difficult to see how an honourable government can survive this. If I were Tony Blair, I would regard this issue as so serious, I could not retain high office
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Iraqi prisoners were urinated on, regularly beaten and spat at by British troops whose behaviour was condoned by superiors, it was reported tonight. In one incident, soldiers took turns in assaulting a prisoner trapped in an armoured personnel carrier, according to allegations published by the Daily Mirror in its Wednesday edition.

One of the soldiers who has come forward also said that earlier Daily Mirror pictures, which allegedly showed British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners, were genuine. Two soldiers, known as E and F, both told the newspaper that they regularly witnessed the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British troops.

On Monday, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said that the previously published Daily Mirror pictures appeared “increasingly like a hoax”.

But Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan said the newspaper did not accept that the Ministry of Defence had proved that the photographs – one of which appeared to show troops urinating on a prisoner and striking him with a rifle – were faked.

The newspaper has previously published testimonies from other soldiers, also alleging human rights abuses.

Soldier E – a member of the Territorial Army attached to the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment – said he had been “sickened” by what he saw in the southern Iraq city of Basra where British forces are based.

He revealed how squaddies allegedly beat up, battered and kicked detainees. He said: “It wasn’t right ... and it was condoned all the way from the top.”

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