Iraq Prisoner Abuse Photos May be Fakes

Shocking photographs splashed across the front page of a widely circulated anti-war daily in Britain showing coalition forces abusing Iraqi prisoners may be fakes, the BBC is reporting.

BBC defense correspondent Paul Adams revealed Sunday that sources close to The Queen's Lancashire Regiment - which allegedly perpetrated the abuse - are suspicious of some details in the photographs, which were published by the Daily Mirror under the headline "VILE."

One picture showed a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi prisoner while holding him at gunpoint.

But according to the BBC, the photos may have been taken outside Iraq, since the rifle shown in one photo - an SA80 mk 1 - was not issued to troops in Iraq.

Also, British soldiers in Iraq wore berets or hard hats - and not floppy hats as depicted in the photos.

And a Bedford military truck visible in the background of one of the photos is a model that was never deployed in Iraq. Colonel Bob Stewart, who commanded British forces in the Balkans, told the BBC that he couldn't say whether the photos were genuine. Beyond questions over bogus equipment shown in the photos, Stewart said there were also discrepancies over clothing and the captive's condition.

"The shirt looks like a football shirt. Is that the sort of shirt that a captive might be wearing, slightly silky with an Iraqi flag? Why is it not dirty and disheveled, why is the man not showing some signs of damage after [a reported] eight hours of beatings".

Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Saturday that the photos, if genuine, showed conduct that was "completely and totally unacceptable."

Photos showing U.S. soldiers humiliating Iraqi prisoners in a Baghdad jail are believed to be accurate.

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