Baghdad, January 11: Britain’s military police are investigating allegations that British troops tortured and killed a 62-year-old Iraqi woman in 2006.
Reports form an investigation by Iraqi Lieutenant Haidar Yashaa Salman from Al-Qibla police station concludes that Sabiha Khudur Talib’s body was dumped on a roadside in a British body bag in November 2006.
“I saw the body in a brown dish-dash [one-piece tunic], bare feet and hands with marks of handcuffs. I saw traces of torture on the body of the victim. I saw a non-penetrated bullet entry in the abdomen,” the Lieutenant said in his report.
The findings are consistent with the family’s claims who say the 62 grandmother had been led away alive by British soldiers. The Ministry of defense, however, says that Mrs. Talib had been caught in crossfire during the raid and died later in a military hospital.
The military has not been able to identify the hospital she was treated at or to whom her body was handed.
Lawyers for the family who are preparing for legal action in the High Court in London against the MoD, say the house was raided in the early hours and that the family thought their home was being attacked by criminals.
Soldiers began firing into the house for 20 minutes, killing one of the victim’s sons, they say. They later entered the house taking Mrs. Talib with them “hit her on her back with a rifle butt” and “shoved her into the vehicle.”
They next saw their mother in a body bag dumped in a highway.
Lawyers for the family have demanded a full inquiry into the November 2006 incident, adding that they are preparing legal action in the High Court against the MoD.
“The possibility that British forces in 2006 could have tortured and executed an innocent elderly woman should shock the nation,” Phil Shiner, the attorney representing the Iraqis, told The Independent on Monday.
It is one of the most serious charges levied against the British Army during its six-year occupation in southern Iraq.
The case is one of 47 accusations of rape, torture and physical assault made by Iraqis against British troops which are being investigated by the MoD.
——-Agencies