The lives of British troops in Iraq may have been put at risk by the publication of photographs apparently showing British soldiers torturing and abusing an Iraqi prisoner, the British government claimed tonight.
Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said the military authorities would leave "no stone unturned" in their efforts to establish the truth behind the pictures published in the Daily Mirroron Friday.
Ministers, meanwhile, were bracing themselves for legal action from the families of Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by British troops aimed at forcing the Government to pay compensation.
Lawyers representing 14 Iraqi families were due to lodge papers at the High Court in London seeking a judicial review.
The lawyers involved include a barrister from Matrix Chambers - the chambers of the Prime Minister's wife, Ms Cherie Blair - and the Birmingham-based Public Interest Lawyers.
In a Commons statement, Mr Ingram called on the Mirrorto co-operate fully with the inquiry into the abuse allegations being carried out by the Royal Military Police Special Investigation Branch (SIB).
He insisted the claims - said to involve soldiers from The Queen's Lancashire Regiment - were already undermining the work of the Armed Forces trying to restore stability in Iraq.
"These allegations have been put right across the Arab world and also into Iraq," he told MPs.
"There is always a question of lives being put at risk because of what may prove to be unfounded allegations, so it is on the conscience of those who run it in this way."
While he said that the Ministry of Defence had taken the photographs at face value, he confirmed that the SIB was examining their authenticity. In its editorial today, the Mirrorsaid that it had "no doubt" that the photographs were genuine and that the story they revealed was "as real as it is horrifying".
However, former members of the regiment and some other newspapers have said that the pictures appeared to be staged and that some of the equipment carried by the troops in the photographs was not used in Iraq.
Mr Ingram said that SIB investigating officers were in touch with the Mirror, which had so far handed over some 20 photographs to the MoD.
He urged the paper to pass on the names of the two soldiers from The Queen's Lancashire Regiment who had made the allegations so that their claims could be investigated. "I have every confidence that anyone who has relevant information will be treated fairly and lawfully and that his or her rights will be fully respected," he said.
"That is why I hope the Mirrorwill reconsider its position and assist the investigating authorities in getting to the bottom of these most serious allegations."
PA