LONDON, Jan 20: The British press on Thursday expressed revulsion over photographs showing the abuse of Iraqi civilians, saying they heaped shame on the nation, but blamed army officials and the government instead of low-ranking soldiers for compromising Britain's Iraq mission.

Photos shown at the court martial of three British soldiers, published in the media on Wednesday, were "the latest blow to (Britain's reputation)", the Financial Times said in a rare editorial criticizing London's war policy.

"While every army has its 'bad apples', that cannot excuse lax or negligent chains of command. The role of officers in command on the ground ... must be investigated," the paper said.

The defendants before the British military tribunal in Osnabrueck, Germany, are charged with offences including battery and prejudicing good military order. The 22 photographs were taken by soldiers as souvenirs of the acts allegedly carried out in May 2003 at a British aid and food warehouse known as the "bread basket" near Basra, southern Iraq.

"Damage has been done to Britain's standing," The Times lamented, saying Britons could no longer express "smug superiority" in relation to prisoner abuse committed by US soldiers at Iraq's now infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

But it said the scandal should not "besmirch" the armed forces as a whole, saying the case involved "what has undoubtedly been exceptional and intolerable behaviour". Several papers were sceptical that only a handful of enlisted men could be guilty, saying officers must have known what was happening and should be held to account.

"The sickening photographs that have been produced at the court martial make it clear that abuse of prisoners was not done in secret," The Sun claimed in its editorial. "They were being mistreated out in the open for all to see. How can it be that no officers knew what was going on?"

The Daily Mail said: "It is certainly true that the poor bloody infantry at the sharp end are being made to answer for their alleged misdeeds. Can the same be said of the politicians who sent them to Iraq in the first place?"

The wide-circulation Daily Telegraph broad sheet, which supported the invasion, said it would withhold comment on the ongoing court martial but issued a stern reminder that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government was responsible for soldiers' welfare.

"Ultimate responsibility for (troops') physical and mental welfare lies heavily with the government that took those decisions (to go to war)," it wrote. Two left-leaning papers, The Independent and The Guardian, said the Iraq mission was deeply compromised by the affair.

The fiercely anti-war Independent expressed "repulsion" at the images, which showed Iraqis lying on the floor as British soldiers pretended to beat them, or tied to a forklift.

"Generally treated with more tolerance than their American counterparts, all British troops now risk being tarred with the same brush: not just as unwelcome occupiers, but as sacrilegious abusers as well."

The left-leaning Guardian agreed: "Only a handful of soldiers may break the rules, and the authorities may respond impeccably, but the actions of the handful nevertheless have the power to demoralize an entire mission, to threaten an entire policy and even to discredit a whole nation." -AFP