UK soldiers will not face charges for Iraq assault

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) Nine British soldiers investigated over a filmed assault on Iraqi civilians after a riot in 2004 will not face criminal charges, the Ministry of Defence said today.

Video footage aired in February last year showed British troops beating and kicking four Iraqi men seized from a crowd of rioters, minutes after a mortar bomb attack on their camp in Al Amarah in southern Iraq.

Two soldiers were seen kicking the body of a dead Iraqi.

The footage was released by Britain's News of the World newspaper and shown widely on British and Arab television.

The images sparked protests in the British-controlled province of Basra. Local politicians temporarily ended cooperation with British troops and demonstrators marched on the British consulate.

The Army Prosecuting Authority (APA) decided there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction and that pursuing charges was not in the public interest.

''Having carefully considered all the evidence, and having sought the opinion of independent leading counsel, the APA has decided that the servicemen should not be tried by court-martial,'' the APA said in a statement.

The ruling was made in December but released by the Ministry of Defence today.

Investigators found there was insufficient evidence to convict six soldiers.

Evidence would support charging two soldiers with battery but there was a time limit of six months on such prosecutions and the incident occurred in April 2004, the APA said.

No criminal action would be taken against the soldier who filmed the incidents.

Two of the soldiers may be punished by the military over allegations they kicked the body of a dead Iraqi, it added, while the Army may also discipline the other soldiers.

The video footage was released at a time of heightened tensions between Iraqis and foreign forces in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Several U S soldiers have been convicted in relation to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Photographs of the abuse were published around the world.

REUTERS PB HT2105