Paper makes new Iraq abuse claims

The Mirror carries more allegations in its Saturday edition

The Daily Mirror has published a fourth British soldier's claims that UK troops abused Iraqi prisoners.

"Soldier D" told the paper he was still serving in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment but was too frightened to be named or to go to military police.

The paper published a photo he said he took of another troop taking a picture of a beaten Iraqi suspect.

The Royal Military Police have already quizzed a soldier who made similar claims of UK troops abusing Iraqis.

The fourth soldier alleged: "There are no rules out there. I saw the man dragged into the vehicle beaten up, kicked and punched. It lasted about a minute."

He claims a colleague then took pictures of the bound captive, who by that stage had bloodied teeth.

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

Shadow defence secretary Nicholas Soames has called for the Ministry of Defence to make a statement to MPs on Monday.

Regiment 'delighted'

The soldier claimed British colleagues took photos and video footage to appear tough and to show friends what had happened.

He said: "If you had pictures you could show them. 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."

Mike Glover, a former officer of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment for 16 years, said he was happy the picture had been published by the Daily Mirror.

"Regimentally, we're delighted because it proves conclusively that the original set of photographs [printed by the Mirror] are false.

This image does not compare with those we have seen coming from US sources Mike Glover

"It is a typical 'trophy' image of soldiers working in Basra," he said.

Mr Glover added the image was "incomparable" to the sort of images emerging from the US military.

"The two do not hang together," he said.

He added he had no doubt the Queen's Lancashire Regiment would be cleared of any wrongdoing by an investigation which is underway.

Separately, an Iraqi man has told the Independent newspaper that he was beaten for three days by British soldiers.

Engineer Kifah Talah, 44, said he was tortured and made to dance by British soldiers, and that he witnessed another man die whilst being detained.