British troops accused of mutilating Iraqi corpses after battle

MILITARY police are investigating allegations that British troops mutilated the bodies of Iraqi fighters killed during a skirmish near the town of Majar al Kabir last month.

The allegations appeared in death certificates written by the director of the town's hospital the day after the May 15 firefight.

Dr Adel Salid Majid claimed some of the 22 corpses handed over to the hospital by British troops showed signs of mutilation and torture.

But his assessment was challenged by another senior Iraqi doctor, who saw one of the dead men at Amara General Hospital, where the bodies were first taken.

He said under condition of anonymity that the wounds he saw were consistent with a fierce gun battle.

Seven of the death certificates are reported to record allegations of mistreatment, including "signs of beating and torturing all over the body" in one case and "mutilation of the genitalia" in another.

One man 37-year-old Ali al Jemindari was described as having had his right arm severed at the shoulder and right eye gouged out, while another's face was said to be distorted.

Dr Majid said that he had been asked to send ambulances to a British Army base near Amara on May 15, the day after a three-hour firefight involving soldiers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Iraqi militia on the Amara-Basra highway.

"When they brought the 22 bodies, it was a surprise to us to see some of these bodies mutilated and tortured," he said.