LONDON, May 1: Britain's mass-circulation Daily Mirror newspaper published photographs on Saturday which it claimed showed British troops abusing an Iraqi prisoner in a camp near Basra, southern Iraq.
"Vile, but this time it's a British soldier degrading an Iraqi," said the headline on a front page dominated by a photograph of a man in army uniform appearing to urinate on a bound captive who had a bag over his head.
Four further pictures inside appeared to show a soldier jabbing the man - who was wearing nothing but underpants and a T-shirt of the Iraqi flag - in the groin with a rifle and the prisoner being stamped and kicked in the head.
On Friday, pictures published of US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners drew international condemnation and overshadowed a US pullout from the troubled Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Alongside the photographs published by the Daily Mirror the story was told of how a man, aged 18-20, was savagely beaten by British soldiers before being thrown from a moving truck and left to die.
It said the photographs were provided by two soldiers - named only Soldier A and Soldier B - who feared reprisals if their names were made public.
According to Soldier A - who admitted to the newspaper he took part in the beating but said he did less than the others - the captive had been accused of stealing from the docks.
"Straightaway he gets a beating," the source was quoted as saying.
"Then he was immediately dragged to the back of the vehicle.
"As we took him back he was getting a beating. He was hit with batons on the knees, fingers, toes, elbows, back of the head."
"You normally try and leave off the face until you are in the camp. So it's body shots - scaring him, telling him 'we're going to kill you'."
Back at the camp, the newspaper reported that the man was made to sit outside before he was put in the back of the truck where the photos were taken.
"Lads were taking turns giving him a right going over, smashing him in the face with weapons and stamping on him," Soldier A was quoted as saying.
"You could see blood coming out early from the first digs.
"He was pissed on and there was spew," said the source. "He could only speak a few words, saying 'No mister. No mister'.
"He was missing teeth. All his mouth was bleeding and his nose was all over the place.-AFP
