MoD Faces Legal Action After Teenage Iraqi Claims Sexual Humiliation By Soldiers

The Ministry of defense is facing fresh court action over as many as 11 cases of alleged abuse of Iraqis, including the alleged sexual humiliation of a teenage boy by British soldiers at a base near Basra in 2003, it emerged yesterday.

One allegation is that a boy of 14 was forced to carry out oral sex on another male detainee at Camp Breadbasket, a British-run camp near Basra. He has been identified only as Hassan.

Now aged 19, Hassan told of being beaten, stripped naked and forced to engage in oral sex with a close friend. He claimed that he fled Basra in shame and cannot ever see his friend again. While events at Breadbasket have been investigated by the Royal Military police, the claim made by Hassan is a new one and has prompted a fresh inquiry.

Lawyers acting for Hassan said that in a further 10 cases Iraqis suffered "severe beatings including being kicked in the face, beatings with a military car aerial, being forced to run while carrying various heavy objects including an iron cage with other Iraqis inside it". It is claimed that one Iraqi was ordered to sever a man's finger with a knife. When he refused he was placed in a net and strung up on a forklift truck.

The 10 other Iraqis named in the Breadbasket case are Khadim Elaiby Jabbara, Aqeel Jassim Mohammad, Muthana Jassim Mohammad, Raa'id Attyar Ali, Bassim Kadhim Abdul-Hussain, Hassan Khadhim Abdul-Hussain, Khalid Jassim Samari, Radhi Ma'an Radhi, Riyadh Hassam Abdul-Hussain and Qasim Resan Khalaf. None of them had been interviewed by the military police in connection with the allegations, their lawyers said yesterday.

The lawyer Phil Shiner has demanded that the MoD take the incidents at Breadbasket in May 2003 into the remit of the public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa. Last week, Mousa's family and 10 other Iraqis were offered compensation totaling nearly £3m after an incident in Basra in September 2003 when Mousa died in the custody of British troops and nine others were abused in a British-run detention centre in Basra. A court martial accused soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment of erecting a "wall of silence". Six soldiers including Col Jorge Mendonca, the commanding officer, were acquitted of negligence and abuse. A corporal admitted inhumane treatment. No one was convicted of killing Mousa.

The government agreed to an independent public inquiry after the defence secretary, Des Browne, said that the soldiers had breached the Human Rights Act. Lawyers wish to broaden the scope of this inquiry to include Breadbasket and have named 10 claimants in a letter to Browne.

Four soldiers were convicted at courts martial in Germany 2005 of the Breadbasket offenses after photographs emerged of Iraqis being abused, including being suspended in nets from a forklift truck, and forced to adopt simulated sexual positions. Members of the 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were involved in a mission nicknamed Operation Ali Baba, which was aimed at catching and deterring looters who had been stealing humanitarian aid from the camp. No one was ever charged in connection with forcing Iraqis to simulate sex acts and give a thumbs up for the camera, despite months of investigation by the Royal Military police.

The Iraqis' lawyers say the MoD has not conducted a proper investigation into the abuses. Shiner said yesterday: "The use of sexual acts by UK forces in Iraq is part of a much bigger picture of systemic abuse which ties in closely with what is known about the US use of sexual acts in Iraq."

An MoD spokesman said it was aware of the allegation of the assault on the 14-year-old Iraqi boy. "Efforts are being made to contact the parties concerned."