Insurgents’ bodies ‘not mutilated’ by British troops

Bodies of insurgents killed in a battle in Iraq were not mutilated by British troops, nor were detainees mistreated, a public inquiry has heard.

On the first day of evidence from military witnesses, the Al-Sweady Inquiry was told claims that Iraqis killed in the Battle of Danny Boy were mutilated were “baseless rumours”, spread to discredit coalition forces.

The inquiry is examining claims, denied by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), that 20 or more Iraqis were unlawfully killed at Camp Abu Naji (CAN) near Majar-al-Kabir on May 14 and 15, 2004, and detainees were ill-treated there and at Shaibah Logistics Base.

Colonel Adam Griffiths told the inquiry he had not seen any evidence to suggest that bodies taken to CAN were mutilated, nor heard anything about detainees being mistreated.

Then the officer commanding B Company, 1st Battalion the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, on May 14, 2004, he was leading a “rover group” returning from another camp called Condor when it was ambushed by Iraqi insurgents. Col Griffiths admitted an order to take bodies of dead Iraqis back to CAN was “highly unusual” but must have been for a good reason — it has been suggested it was given in a bid to identify an insurgent who may have been responsible for the murder of six Red Caps the previous year.

But Col Griffiths said he did not, and had never, believed rumours troops had mutilated bodies before they were handed back to relatives. In a statement to the inquiry, he said: “I thought then, and I still think now, that the rumours were baseless and caused by a combination of ignorance amongst the local population as to the traumatic injuries that can be suffered in combat and the misinformation spread by insurgents who wished to discredit the coalition forces.”

Col Griffiths said he had seen nothing to suggest mistreatment of detainees at CAN, nor mistreatment on the battlefield, or any “executions”.

Sergeant James Gadsby, who at the time was with the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, attached to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, helped unload the bodies from the Land Rovers at CAN and said he had not seen any injuries that did not look like battlefield injuries.

He said he thought there were around 10 bodies in total, laid out in a line outside the medical centre.

“I could see the bodies and faces of the dead that had been removed from the Land Rovers,” he said. “One of the bodies laid out on the ground had his eye shot out and another had half his arm hanging off.”

He went on: “I did not observe any injuries that I believe were inconsistent with having been sustained as a result of the firing of ammunition commonly used on the battlefield.”

Sgt Gadsby said he had no involvement with detainees, and did not hear of anyone complain about the way detainees were treated.

The inquiry continues.