UK forces based in Iraq backed the investigation into alleged abuse carried out by troops in Iraq two years ago, a military spokesman said yesterday.
The British military police probe was launched after the News of the World newspaper claimed to have received video footage allegedly showing British troops using their fists and batons to beat a group of young Iraqis.
"We condemn all acts of abuse and brutality," said Flight Lieutenant Chris Thomas, a British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra, where most of the more than 8,000 British troops in Iraq are based.
"We hope that the good relations that the multi-national forces have worked very hard to develop won't be adversely affected by this material," he said.
Thomas said the allegations relate "to only a tiny number of the 80,000 personnel that have served in Iraq."
The newspaper says the video was filmed in 2004 by a corporal who urged the soldiers on during the alleged attack caught on tape, which it claimed was passed on by a whistleblower, who they have refused to identify.
It was unclear how news of the video will impact upon relations between British troops in southern Iraq and locals. Thomas declined to provide details on which units were based in Basra two years ago.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS