UK defense ministry investigates brutality claims against soldiers in Iraq

The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) is investigating allegations that UK troops used banned "conditioning techniques" on several Iraqi prisoners, in the wake of an army review into the death of a detainee. Five Iraqis claim that British troops stormed into their house on April 1 last year in the Gzaiza neighborhood of Basra at midnight, amid family celebrations at the birth of a daughter, and took them to a British military facility at Basra airport. They allege that during the journey, while hooded, they were kicked, punched and beaten with rifle butts. Once at the detention centre the Iraqis said they were continually beaten, denied food and water, interrogated at regular intervals throughout the night, forced to maintain stress positions and subjected to sleep deprivation. The claims follow the MoD's announcement in April that it would hold a public inquiry into the death of Iraqi detainee Baha Musa in 2003. He died of asphyxiation in British custody after sustaining 93 wounds. Musa's death led to the army reviewing banned interrogation techniques that had been used to soften up the Iraqi detainees, including hooding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, food deprivation and noise. The army's use of the five techniques, described as inhuman and degrading treatment by the European court of human rights, was outlawed by the government in 1972. The ban was reiterated in the wake of the Musa case. According to a letter of claim sent to the MoD by London-based lawyers Leigh Day, one claimant, known as CZH, who worked for Iraq's national guard, said "a soldier stood on his back, causing him difficulty breathing ... one soldier lifted the hood and punched [him] seven or eight times on the nose until it bled. Another punched his right ear repeatedly until it too bled." CZH, who has not been able to return to work since the incident, claims he is unable to breathe or smell properly and his ear "bleeds continuously". He is considered at risk of killing himself. Lawyer Sapna Malik said: "Since the death of Baha Musa the British army has claimed that the ban on the use of the five techniques has been rigorously implemented. The treatment suffered by our clients would suggest that is far from being the case." Three of the five men were released after 48 hours. The remaining two were detained at Basra airport and at the British detention facility at Shaiba in Basra without charge for two and a half and seven months respectively. All were released without charge and the reason for their arrest remains unknown. Three of the claimants say they have lost their jobs as a result of physical trauma and all allege they have been left with psychological scars, including depression and persistent nightmares. An MoD spokesman said: "These allegations are already under investigation by the Royal Military Police."