12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LONDON, May 11: Britain was hit by a double blow on Tuesday as a report accused its troops of killing Iraqi civilians without justification - including an eight-year-old girl - and a court allowed relatives of victims to mount a legal challenge to the government.

With the British government struggling to cope with the growing Anglo-American scandal over mistreatment of prisoners, the court ruling and Amnesty International report threatened to inflict yet more damage on the reputation of UK forces and their commanders.

Lawyers acting for 12 Iraqi families who allege their relatives were killed by British troops won the right in London's High Court to challenge the government - a case that could lead to criminal proceedings against soldiers or the government for unlawful killing.

Judge Justice Andrew Collins ruled the 12 families should be given permission to argue that the European Convention on Human Rights applied to their cases. "The way things are going in Iraq it seems to me it is in everyone's interest that this point should be decided as soon as possible," he said.

The families' lawyer, Phil Shiner, argued that because the Iraq invasion was officially over when the victims died, and Britain was an occupying power, the European Convention should apply.

He said many of the deaths occurred when the victims were at home or going about normal life. One man was working on a farm, another was fishing and another was returning home in his car.

Human rights group Amnesty also accused British troops of killing Iraqi civilians - including an eight-year-old girl and a wedding guest - when they posed no apparent threat.

It was not immediately clear whether the cases cited by Amnesty overlapped with those before the High Court. Amnesty said British troops' actions had breached international human rights standards, and accused Britain of undermining the rule of law in Iraq by failing to investigate the suspected unlawful killings.

"The British Army's response to suspected unlawful killing of civilians has undermined...the rule of law," it said. "It has failed to conduct investigations into all killings of civilians, and the investigations that have been carried out have failed to ensure that justice was done, and seen to be done in the eyes of the victims' families."

Amnesty said UK troops had been involved in the killings of at least 37 civilians since May 1 last year, when the invasion officially ended. It highlighted nine cases in the southern Iraqi areas of Basra and Amara, including eight-year-old Hanan Saleh Matrud, shot dead on Aug 21 near her home village.

An eyewitness told Amnesty Hanan was killed when a soldier aimed at her and fired a shot from around 60 metres away, but the army said she was killed accidentally by a warning shot.

A defence ministry spokesman said the government was studying the report. "We are aware of the concerns expressed by AI and are considering the points raised. We will respond in detail in due course," he said. -Reuters