[Mb-civic] Video Shows U.K. Soldiers Abusing Iraqi Teens - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Video Shows U.K. Soldiers Abusing Iraqi Teens

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 12, 2006; 6:39 AM

BAGHDAD, Feb. 12 -- A video published by a British tabloid today, shows 
what appear to be U.K. soldiers head-butting, kicking and clubbing 
unarmed Iraqi teenagers while an off-camera voice laughs and taunts the 
victims.

The footage, described by the News of the World in its Sunday edition 
and linked on the paper's Web site, was said to be shot from the 
observation tower of a compound in the southern city of Basra during a 
series of street riots there in early 2004. Its authenticity could not 
be verified.

Apparent soldiers in riot gear and British Army uniforms can be seen 
dragging three Iraqi boys or young men into the courtyard of a walled 
compound, wrestling them to the ground and battering them with more than 
40 blows over a two-minute period. The Iraqis offer little if any 
resistance, occasionally crying out, "No, please. No please."

As the beatings escalate, an audibly agitated man with a British accent 
can be heard yelling, "Oh yes. Oh yes. You're gonna get it. Yes. Naughty 
little boys," followed by expletives and peels of laughter.

The tape, if authentic, could further damage already strained relations 
between the more than 8,000-member British force policing southern Iraq 
and local residents, politicians and police. If verified, it would be 
the most graphic visual depiction of abuse by coalition forces since the 
2004 Abu Ghraib scandal, when photographs shot by American soldiers at a 
prison west of Baghdad, showed detainees posed in sexual positions and 
terrorized by German shepherds.

A British military spokesman in Basra said the tape had prompted the 
country's defense ministry and Royal Military Police to order an "urgent 
investigation" into the apparent abuse.

"We are aware of the very serious allegations and obviously condemn all 
acts of abuse and brutality," said Maj. Peter Cripps, a British military 
spokesman in Basra. "We have always treated every allegation of 
wrongdoing brought to our attention very seriously. British troops are 
not above the law."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/12/AR2006021200166.html?nav=hcmodule
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