New Iraq abuse, torture claims hit UK regiment

British soldiers take position yesterday during clashes with militiamen loyal to Shia Muslim radical leader Moqtada Sadr in the southern city of Basra. Gun battles erupted in both Basra and the town of Amara further north as members of Sadr's Army of Mehdi militia clashed repeatedly with British troops, losing at least five men. PHOTO: AFP

For the third time in a week, the Daily Mirror tabloid published claims against British troops of the troubled regiment, this time saying its soldiers even made CDs of beatings to keep as souvenirs.

Meanwhile, the Independent newspaper carried a separate allegation, this time from a former Iraqi prisoner who claimed he was beaten -- on the neck, chest and genitals -- by troops in the same regiment.

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In what the newspaper claimed to be the first eyewitness account of abuse carried out by British soldiers, Kifah Talah, 44, was reportedly tortured and humiliated by up to eight soldiers at a time for three days.

This stream of allegations will add to a furore over the torture of Iraqis by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, which has imperilled the position of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The front page of Saturday's Daily Mirror -- one of Britain's most widely read tabloid newspapers -- carried a picture allegedly provided by a member of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, currently based in Cyprus.

The picture allegedly shows a soldier photographing a bound captive with bloodied teeth in the back of an armoured personnel carrier.

"There are no rules out there," a man, known only as "Soldier D", was quoted as saying. "I saw the man dragged into the vehicle beaten up, kicked and punched. It lasted about a minute," he said.

"I took the picture as I opened the doors of the vehicle and could see dirt on his shirt and blood on his teeth.

"You'd come back from Iraq and people wouldn't know what you've been through.

"If you had pictures you could show them," he was quoted as saying. "While we were out there we were told to get rid of all of them. But if they'd done a proper search they'd have found CDs and all sorts of things.