An Iraqi judge has issued arrest warrants for two British soldiers freed after a British raid in Basra, an Iraqi lawyer said today, and thousands rallied in the southern city in support of a new constitution.
Judge Raghib Hassan issued the warrants on Thursday, accusing the men of killing an Iraqi policeman and wounding another, carrying unlicensed weapons and holding false identification, Kassim al-Sabti, the head of the lawyers' syndicate in Basra told Reuters.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said the warrants had no legal basis.
"All British troops in Iraq come under the jurisdiction of Britain," a defence spokesman said in London.
The whereabouts of the two soldiers was not clear.
British forces mounted a bid to free the two soldiers on Monday, but were initially repelled as a crowd of angry Iraqis petrol-bombed an armoured vehicle.
Later British forces returned and armoured vehicles broke down the walls of the jail. The two were later freed from a private house nearby, where they were believed to have been held by a local militia.
Basra authorities said British troops killed two Iraqi police during the raid.
Monday's flare-up has harmed the relationship British forces were able to build with local Iraqis in and around Basra, a relatively stable city compared with other parts of Iraq.
Basra's governing council has suspended all cooperation with the British until they apologise, guarantee that similar actions are not taken again and provide compensation for damage inflicted during the operation.
Two investigations into the events leading up to the rescue were under way by Iraqi authorities and the British military.