LONDON — Britain’s tabloid newspapers have not been squeamish about showing some of the more ghastly images of the war in Iraq. Corpses and bloodied victims of bombings have been common on their front pages.
But of all the carnage shown since the war began, photographs published Saturday in The Daily Mirror, a national daily with a circulation of nearly 2 million, may do more harm to the coalition efforts to calm Iraq than all those published before.
The photographs — which have not been authenticated — show what appears to be an Iraqi prisoner being kicked, beaten with a rifle and urinated on by British soldiers.
Whether authentic or staged, the photographs have been broadcast throughout the Arab world by Al-Jazeera and other Arab newscasters, by the British Broadcast Corp., and other stations around the world.
They are being condemned by Islamic leaders who opposed the war and are portraying the images as emblematic of abuses by coalition soldiers and general hostility by the West toward Muslims. They say that in addition to thousands of Iraqi civilians who may have been killed during the war in Iraq, the pictures show the brutality of the occupiers.
"There is enough evidence of atrocities — of thousands of civilians being killed, including women and children — that we believe these pictures are true," said Anjem Choudary, deputy director of Al-Muhajiroun in London, an Islamic group operating in at least 15 countries and which advocates for Islamic law throughout the world. "The veil has been lifted for the world to see how the occupiers are treating Iraqis."
Reaction from British officials has been to condemn the actions shown in the photographs while emphasizing that whether they were staged for propaganda purposes cannot be discounted.
"If there has been any abuse, I believe it to be exceptional, but that doesn’t make it any the less unacceptable," Prime Minister Tony Blair told Sky News.
A spokeswoman for The Mirror, Sarah Vaughan-Brown, said the photographs were obtained from one of the attackers and another British soldier under condition that they not be identified.
Photographs inside the newspaper, spread over four pages, show a man in a British uniform apparently striking the Iraqi’s groin with a rifle. Another shows a rifle pointed at the prisoner’s head and another shows a boot apparently being thrust into his mouth. Blood is shown soaking through the burlap.
Sir Michael Jackson, chief of the general staff, said he ordered an investigation into the pictures as soon as he was notified of them by The Mirror.
"If proven, the perpetrators are not fit to wear the queen’s uniform," he said. "They have besmirched the good name of the army and its honor."
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