MoD to investigate 'Iraqi beatings'

The Ministry of Defence today said it would investigate a newspaper report that soldiers beat up innocent Iraqis they falsely suspected of being involved in the execution of six Red Caps.

A spokeswoman for the MoD said they would be "looking into" the allegations, made in today's Daily Mirror, that SAS soldiers kicked and beat 11 innocent Iraqis in a raid in the southern Iraqi town of al Majar al-Kabir.

The alleged incident took place in an attempt to track down the killers of six Royal Military Police officers who died after they were besieged by a mob at the town's police station in June.

It was reported that the Army has offered its "humblest apologies" in an open letter to the town, pledging a full investigation and compensation for injuries and wrongful arrest.

The MoD today said it was unaware of any suggestions, apart from those in the Daily Mirror, that the detainees had been mistreated.

She said: "We can confirm that coalition troops conducted an arrest operation in al Majar al-Kabir and that a number of personnel were temporarily detained.

"We are not aware of any other suggestions that any of the detainees were mistreated.

"The people who were detained were given a medical inspection before they were taken to where they were temporarily held for questioning.

"Certainly at this stage there were no signs of serious injuries.

"Therefore there is no investigation under way. Were we to receive any evidence of mistreatment, of course we would look at it carefully."

The British soldiers killed in June were: Sergeant Simon Alexander Hamilton-Jewell, 41, from Chessington, Surrey; Corporal Russell Aston, 30, from Swadlincote, Derbyshire; Corporal Paul Graham Long, 24, from Colchester, Essex; Corporal Simon Miller, 21, from Tyne and Wear; Lance Corporal Benjamin John McGowan Hyde, 23, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire; and Lance Corporal
Thomas Richard Keys, 20, from Llanuwchllyn, near Bala, north Wales.