TA soldier makes claims of beatings
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Your support makes all the difference.A member of the Territorial Army has made a series of allegations to military police that Iraqi prisoners were beaten and abused by British soldiers.
A member of the Territorial Army has made a series of allegations to military police that Iraqi prisoners were beaten and abused by British soldiers.
The TA soldier claims in today's Daily Mirror, that he saw Iraqi prisoners of war being beaten on four separate occasions. The new accusations concern the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, which is already being investigated over photographs of alleged torture published in the newspaper.
The TA man, referred to as "Soldier C", says PoWs were punched and kicked. In one assault, he says, a corporal placed a sandbag over a suspect's face and poked his fingers into the man's eyes until he screamed with pain.
Piers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, said Soldier C, had handed a dossier of evidence detailing "appalling beatings" to the Royal Military Police.
"He will be naming the names of the people responsible, including corporals and sergeants and some senior officers who he says were culpable in tacitly allowing this to happen," Mr Morgan said.
He told the BBC: "He believes there are already ongoing investigations into a number of people involved in this ring of bad apples and there will be automatic courts martial following."
The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night that military police had interviewed the TA member over his allegations. It also disclosed that a regular soldier had been interviewed separately in Manchester over claims that prisoners were abused. An MoD spokesman said: "We take all allegations about ill-treatment of Iraqi civilians very seriously."
Westminster was awash with rumours last night that arrests of British soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq were imminent. The claims were strongly denied by the Ministry of Defence.
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