Tag: iraq-

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Father of Iraqi allegedly murdered by UK soldiers gives evidence to inquiry

By Sharon Black

Khazaal al-Helfi describes via videolink how army body bag containing his 19-year-old son Ahmed was ‘full of blood’ The father of an Iraqi allegedly murdered by British soldiers has told a public inquiry that when a doctor opened an army body bag containing his 19-year-old son he saw “blood pouring out of his chest”. His son Ahmed had “gunshots on the side of his stomach … his hand was broken [and] the bag was full of blood”, Khazaal al-Helfi told the inquiry on Monday into allegations that British troops murdered up to 20 unarmed prisoners and abused others following a fierce battle with Iraqi insurgents in May 2004. Helfi was the first Iraqi witness to give evidence by videolink from the British embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, to the al-Sweady inquiry, named after the family of another 19-year-old Iraqi allegedly killed by British troops following a fierce gunfight with Iraqi insurgents.

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Fake bomb detector salesman sentenced to 10 years

By Sharon Black

Survivors of Iraq attacks to seek £7m compensation as judge describes fraud as ‘callous confidence trick’ The survivors of lethal Baghdad truck bombs driven through checkpoints equipped with fake bomb detectors are to lay claim to at least £7m of the assets of the Somerset fraudster who sold them. An Old Bailey judge sentenced Jim McCormick, 57, to 10 years in jail on Thursday for a fraud he described as the worst he could imagine and “a callous confidence trick”. Now a list of around 200 people either injured or related to the 95 killed in a double bombing on the Iraqi ministries of justice and foreign affairs in 2009 will be presented to the UK authorities

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Fake bomb detector conman jailed for 10 years

By Sharon Black

James McCormick, who sold more than £55m worth of fake detectors likely to have caused Iraqi deaths, jailed for 10 years A fraudster who sold more than £55m worth of fake bomb detectors to Iraq and other security hot spots has been jailed for 10 years.

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I was beaten, blindfolded and humiliated, says Iraqi former prisoner

By Sharon Black

Ex-detainee gives evidence to Al-Sweady inquiry investigating claims that UK troops murdered unarmed Iraqis in 2004 An Iraqi detained by British troops after a battle with insurgents said at an official inquiry he was blindfolded, beaten, humiliated, interrogated while naked, and feared he would be tortured. “I felt they were out to kill us,” Mahdi Jasim Abdullah al-Behadili told the public inquiry into allegations that British soldiers murdered up to 20 unarmed Iraqis and abused up to nine others following a fierce firefight with insurgents on 14 May 2004. Behadili, who was 17 when he was seized by the soldiers that day, is the first Iraqi detainee to give oral evidence to the inquiry in central London.

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‘Iraq is always with you’: a veteran’s memories of the war

By Sharon Black

As a British lieutenant during the war in Iraq, James Jeffrey went there with a sense of optimism. Ten years on, he explains why he feels ashamed about how we failed the people there All the commentary surrounding the Iraq invasion 10 years on encourages retrospection but I think most veterans, like me, would agree that talk of anniversaries makes scant difference

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Al-Sweady inquiry hears father’s allegations of torture by British troops

By Sharon Black

The first witness to give evidence alleges marks of torture on his son’s body, but the claims are dismissed by the inquiry QC The father of an Iraqi teenager who was allegedly murdered by British soldiers has described injuries on his son’s body as a bullet wound in the neck, a fractured right jaw, bruises to the chest, and marks around the neck “resembling a necklace”. Injuries to other Iraqis included “bodies distorted and mutiliated, eyes missing, tongues cut out, and noses cut off”, he told a public inquiry on Monday.

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Iraq torture claims ‘utterly groundless’, Al-Sweady inquiry hears

By Sharon Black

Allegations of unlawful killing and mistreatment of prisoners by British soldiers denied by officers and troops involved Allegations that British soldiers tortured and unlawfully killed Iraqi prisoners after a firefight in 2004 are “utterly groundless” and were exploited in support of a propaganda campaign against the occupation of the country, a public inquiry heard on Monday. The killing and mistreatment claims are denied by each of the officers and men involved in that engagement, and by those involved in the capture and interrogation of Iraqis in its aftermath, Neil Garnham QC, counsel for the troops, told the inquiry. “They are denied on the basis that they are wholly untrue,” he said

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Iraqis captured by UK troops ‘were told they had been taken to Abu Ghraib’

By Sharon Black

Al-Sweady inquiry into allegations against British troops hears captured Iraqis were played recordings of screams to scare them Iraqis captured by British troops were told they had been taken to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, used by Saddam Hussein and after the invasion by US forces, and said recordings of screams as though someone was being tortured were played to scare them, a public inquiry into allegations of murder and abuse of unarmed prisoners by UK forces heard on Wednesday. The prisoners alleged they were abused and humiliated after they were taken from a camp north of Basra to a British detention centre at Shaibah further south, Jonathan Acton Davis QC, counsel to the al-Sweady inquiry, said.

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Photographs may help explain Iraqi deaths, al-Sweady inquiry hears

By Sharon Black

British troops alleged to have murdered up to 20 prisoners after a fierce battle in May 2004, and tortured five other captives Photographs of dead Iraqis taken by a British army officer after a battle in the south-east of the country may be the key to establishing whether they were killed during that encounter or murdered after being taken prisoner, a public inquiry heard on Tuesday.

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The lonely soldier and the moral scars of war | James Jeffrey

By Sharon Black

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan find little ethical defence in the ‘just war’. Each of us struggles to make peace with our actions In trying to understand the ongoing suicide epidemic among soldiers and veterans a third factor in addition to physical injuries and PTSD is now being discussed: the moral injuries they bring back