UK denies allegations of Iraqi abuse by British troops

The British government denied allegation of abuse by UK troops in Iraq following the launch of legal action relating to an insurgent ambush incident on the road from Amara to Basra in May 2004.

Lawyers for Iraqi families of soldiers captured after the incident lodged documents at London's High Court on Friday, including a video showing bodies taken to an Iraqi hospital and witness statements claiming some showed signs of horrific mutilation and torture.

The complaint is demanding an independent inquiry into an incident that began with a "heavy firefight" on the Amara to Basra road, at a checkpoint just north of the town of Majar al-Kabir.

But the UK's Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that "no evidence was found of any systematic or deliberate mutilation and all the injuries were found to be consistent with the battlefield injuries." "The MoD takes very seriously any allegations of wrong-doing by our troops and the allegations relating to this incident were fully investigated at the time," it said in a statement.

The ministry confirmed the bodies of 20 Iraqi fighters were collected for identification and nine living prisoners were rounded up for processing.

"As the bodies were recovered when there was still sporadic fighting, the recovery of the bodies took place in dangerous conditions and it is possible that some damage to the bodies may have occurred during their removal from the battlefield," it said.

According to Channel Four News, the video shows bodies being collected by local ambulances that were driven hospital and being examined by doctors, who have said one was asphyxiated, another shot in the neck, another had his penis cut off.

One man's eye was also said to have been gauged out, with blood on the wound that has led to claims he was alive when the injury was inflicted.