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British Soldier Held Over Iraqis Torture Photos from Islam Online 
British Soldier Held Over Iraqis Torture Photos LONDON, May 30 2003(IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A British soldier has been questioned over sickening "torture" photos of Iraqi prisoners of war while the U.S.-led invasion was raging. Military police quizzed a British soldier in custody after photographs emerged showing invasion forces "torturing" Iraqi PoWs, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. The photos showed an Iraqi PoW dangling from a fork-lift truck, and others depict soldiers committing sex acts near captured Iraqis, The Sun newspaper charged. One snap showed an Iraqi PoW who was bound and gagged. He was bundled up in netting suspended from the fork-lift which was driven by a British soldier, said the best-selling tabloid. It is believed the prisoner was alive when the pictures were taken in southern Iraq as the aggression was running, said the British paper. The MoD confirmed that a soldier was being held in military custody while the Special Investigations Branch of the Royal Military Police launched an inquiry, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. "We confirm an investigation is under way into allegations of photos depicting maltreatment of Iraqi PoWs," a ministry spokeswoman said. If the pictures are found to show real Iraqis, and have not been stage-managed, such treatment would be a breach of the Geneva Convention which governs the treatment of POWs, she admitted. "We cannot comment further. But if there is any truth in these allegations the MoD is appalled. We take responsibility to PoWs extremely seriously." The MoD refused to confirm the soldiers' identity, unit or hometown. But the BBC News Online said the pictures are believed to have been taken by a soldier serving with the 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in southern Iraq at the time of the events. The Sun said the soldier was arrested by civilian police at his home in the English Midlands, where he was on leave following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Britain contributed 45,000 military personnel, a naval task force and more than 100 aircraft to the war, and British forces currently occupy the southern part of Iraq. An investigation is already underway into charges that a colonel in the Royal Irish Regiment, Tim Collins, abused Iraqi PoWs and civilians. The charges were made by a U.S. army reservist tongue-lashed by Collins for handing out lollipops to Iraqi children. The 1st battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers -- part of the 7th Armoured Brigade, nicknamed the Desert Rats -- is based in Celle, Germany. The Fusiliers were also involved in Gulf War I in 1991 - and lost nine men when American jets strafed their armoured personnel carriers. Cluster Bombs Used The investigations into torturing Iraqi PoWs come as British Defense Minister Adam Ingram admitted that the Anglo-American forces did use cluster bombs in densely populated areas during the Iraq invasion. Seventy-five Labor MPs are calling for cluster bombs, which can leave unexploded "bomblets", to be banned because of the threat they pose to civilians, the BBC News Online reported. British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon on April 3 told lawmakers that cluster bombs were used only when it was "absolutely justified" because it would "make the battlefield safer for our armed forces". |