Fresh Iraq abuse claims rock British army

This picture shows the front page of the May 7 edition of the tabloid the Daily Mirror in London carrying the story of a soldier who came forward to military police claiming to have witnessed numerous beatings of prisoners. The unnamed territorial army soldier, told the Daily Mirror newspaper, that he had seen four incidents of prisoners being punched and kicked by soldiers of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. PHOTO: AFP

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Royal Military Police was questioning the unidentified member of the Territorial Army, whose alarming claims appeared in the Daily Mirror newspaper.

They added to a furore over the torture of Iraqis by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, and over photos last weekend in the Daily Mirror purporting to show an Iraqi being abused by British troops.

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Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has launched a full investigation into the alleged British abuses, said to have involved members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, currently based in Cyprus.

On its front page Friday, the Daily Mirror said the reservist, which it named "Soldier C," was deployed with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment when it was in southern Iraq in July through November last year.

"I witnessed four beatings when people were punched and kicked," he was quoted as telling the newspaper.

"One corporal went up to a suspect who had a sandbag over his face and poked his fingers into the guy's eyeballs until he was screaming in pain," he said.

"I've seen the state of their faces when they took the sandbags off. Their noses were bent. They looked likes haggisses. But it was mainly the rib area," he said. (Haggis is a Scottish dish made from a sheep's stomach.)

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence in London told AFP that "Soldier C has been spoken to by the Special Investigation Branch" of the Royal Military Police.

Sky News television said he was undergoing further questioning Friday at a military police station, probably somewhere in the London area, and that his statement -- if verified -- could lead to a court martial.

Meanwhile, doubts remain as to the authenticity of pictures that appeared in the Daily Mirror last Saturday purporting to show British soldiers kicking and urinating on a man in a T-shirt emblazoned with the Iraqi flag.

Experts, including retired British army interrogators, have said the pictures look staged. They also pointed out that the rifles and hats seen were not identical to those used by British troops in Iraq.

The photos were published alongside graphic claims of abuse, made by two members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, one of the most experienced infantry units in the British army.

The Daily Mirror's combative editor Piers Morgan, who editorially opposed the Iraq war, reiterated Thursday that he stands by the photos, as his newspaper ran a point-by-point rebuttal of the experts' doubts.

Backing up Morgan was Sir Victor Bank, chairman of Trinity Mirror, the publishing group that owns the Daily Mirror, Britain's third most widely read tabloid daily newspaper.

"They (the photos) are not fakes," said Bank at a shareholders' meeting in London, the Times newspaper reported Friday. "The newspaper people have been into the issue and they are satisfied with their authenticity."

On BBC radio, Nicholas Soames, defence spokesman for the main opposition Conservative party, said the allegations were "extremely serious" for the reputation of the British army.