MPs to probe UK role in Iraq
An influential group of MPs have announced they are to investigate the role of UK troops in Iraq.
The announcement comes just after the UN Security Council agreed its first resolution on Iraq in over a year.
It maps out the practical transfer of power from coalition forces to the Iraqi interium government.
The Commons Defence Select Committee will be investigating the role of UK troops in Iraq both now and after the handover of sovereignty.
They will also look at the activities of the troops and the likely length and scale of their deployment in Iraq.
Announcing the inquiry, committee chairman Bruce George said: “This inquiry will allow us to look at what work has already been undertaken as well the role that British forces will play after June 30th and the problems and challenges that they will have to overcome.
“Questions have of course been raised over the conduct of a small minority of coalition troops. Although we will not investigate individual allegations of abuse, an important element of our inquiry will be to examine general relations between British forces and the Iraqi civilian population.”
Though the photographs published by the Daily Mirror of alleged prisoner abuse were proved to be fakes, there are still murmurings about incidences of prisoner mistreatment.
The British Army is currently investigating a number of deaths and alleged incidences of mistreatment in custody.
In a hint that the Committee may have certain concerns about the legal basis for the war, they will also “consider the formal status of those forces before and after the transfer of sovereignty and the implications of that status.”
