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Iraq: chilling account of U.K. soldiers' conduct

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In the biggest trial of British troops over allegations of murder and abuse of Iraqi civilians, a court martial has heard a chilling account of how seven soldiers killed a teenager in what the prosecution described as a "gratuitous'', "unjustified'' and "unprovoked'' attack on a group of unarmed villagers in southern Iraq in May 2003, three weeks after the hostilities had officially ceased.

The seven, all members of a parachute regiment, are being tried on charges of murder and violent disorder as a result of which an 18-year-old peasant Nadhem Abdullah was killed and some others, including a woman who had given birth to a baby only three days before, were assaulted with fists, rifle butts and helmets.

The incident reportedly took place after the troops intercepted a pick-up truck on suspicion that its occupants were smugglers, dubbed the "Ali Babas'' in an allusion to the Arabian tale of Ali Baba and his accomplices.

Martin Heslop, QC, told the court during a hearing in Colchester, Essex, on Monday that the occupants of the Toyota pick-up truck were "dragged from the vehicle and made to lie face down on the ground and then assaulted by the soldiers using their fists, their feet, their helmets and their rifles''.

"The men did little more than simply lie there suffering the blows,'' he said. The incident was reportedly watched by several eyewitnesses. Abdullah, who suffered a serious head injury, later died. All the accused — Corporal Scott Evans and Privates Samuel May, Billy Nerney, Morne' Vosloo, and ex-Privates Daniel Harding, Scott Jackson and Roberto Di-Gregario — have denied the charges.

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