OSNABRUECK, Germany, Jan 26 (AFP) - Three British soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi civilians had not been fully briefed of how to treat captured looters in an operation which went badly wrong, their court martial heard on Wednesday.
The seventh day of the hearing focused on what the soldiers from the Royal Fusiliers had been told to do in Operation Ali Baba, a plan to catch looters who were repeatedly plundering humanitarian food aid from a warehouse complex near Basra, southern Iraq, in May 2003.
The hearing was told that as sergeant major of the complex known as Camp Bread Basket, it had been Richard Jackson's responsibility to brief the soldiers on orders given from their commanding officer.
But Jackson told the court martial he had only given the accused "a broadbrush briefing" before leaving the scene.
Questioned by the Royal Military Police in June 2003, Jackson said he thought the commanding officer of the regiment, Major Dan Taylor, would brief the soldiers about the planned operation in his absence.
"I assumed that the quarter master, assumption being the mother of all fuck-ups, was going to grab everybody, which he said he would do, and give them a quick briefing before it took place."
That never happened and "certainly something had gone wrong," Jackson admitted.
The defence alleges that the accused were misled by unclear and incomplete orders from their superiors which indirectly led to the alleged mistreatment of captured looters.
Photographs taken by servicemen at the warehouse show Iraqi men being forced to simulate sex acts and one tied to the forks of a forklift truck.
The photographs recall abuses by US guards at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad and the hearing comes at a sensitive time for British forces in Iraq ahead of Sunday's general election.
Defence lawyer Joseph Giret asked Jackson if he had told his client Corporal Daniel Kenyon, who was in charge of the two other accused, that they should give the looters "a kicking".
Jackson denied this.
Giret said: "I put it to you that your instinct as a military man was to punish them and you pushed that duty on to Kenyon."
Jackson replied: "No, sir."
The hearing also heard from Regimental Sergeant Major John Mulheran, who said the looting had become so bad at Camp Bread Basket in the chaotic weeks after the fall of Saddam Hussein that Iraqis were even breaking into the accommodation of women soliders.
There was an atmosphere of "frustration" among soliders there, Mulheran said.
He said his recollection of Operation Ali Baba was that captured looters should be made to work "putting good any damage they had done".
The three soldiers face a total of nine charges ranging from assault to indecency.
Kenyon and Lance Corporal Mark Cooley deny all charges, while Lance Corporal Darren Larkin admits one assault but denies another charge.
The hearing, which is due to last until mid-February, was continuing on Wednesday.
01/26/2005 13:43 GMT - AFP