Mirror pictures 'are fake'

Photographs which the Daily Mirror claimed were of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner are "categorically" fakes, the Commons was told this afternoon.

The newspaper claimed that men of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment were involved.

But armed forces minister Adam Ingram told MPs he was disturbed that there were those who were prepared to "casually vilify our armed forces without first establishing the facts".

He said the pictures were taken in an Army lorry which had never been sent to Iraq.

His statement left no possibility that the images which caused worldwide revulsion were anything but a sophisticated hoax. Mr Ingram warned that criminal charges could be brought against those responsible.

His words left Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan fighting for his job.

Mr Ingram said the newspaper had dragged "the very high name of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment through the mud" and denigrated troops risking their lives to uphold Iraqi human rights. Mr Ingram said: "These pictures were categorically not taken in Iraq."

His statement followed an investigation by the Royal Military Police (RMP). The minister said that the view that the pictures were fakes "is not just the opinion of the RMP special investigations branch but has been independently corroborated". He added: "Those involved may have committed offences under military law. Investigations continue into the very serious allegations made.

"If the investigations result in criminal proceedings the evidence will become public at that stage just as it would in a UK court."

A week ago Mr Ingram told the Commons the pictures were being taken at face value by the Government. He said this afternoon: "That value has changed. Investigations are proceeding on that basis.

Army investigators are reported to have identified the four-ton Bedford lorry in the pictures - and tracked it to a barracks in Lancashire rather than Basra.

The development came as pictures described as the worse yet of Iraqi prisoners being abused by American soldiers shocked US politicians. Senators were shown pictures and video footage which revealed degrading treatment of detainees.

"I saw cruel, sadistic torture," said Congresswoman Jane Harman. Another senator described it as "a descent into the wings of hell".

In an another highly damaging blow, the US was accused of officially sanctioning the use of torture against prisoners by a secret CIA interrogation unit.

At least 20 prisoners, mostly top al Qaeda suspects, were subjected to beatings and mock executions, according to the New York Times. This includes a technique known as "water boarding", where the suspect is strapped down and forcibly held under water until he believes he is drowning. The new revelations mark a significant deepening of the crisis of Iraq faced by President Bush and Tony Blair. In a closed-door session in Washington, senators and congressmen saw more than 1,600 photos which they said depicted forced sex, brutality and dogs snarling at cowed prisoners. Some members of Congress said they feared that making the images public would inflame international outrage and endanger Americans in Iraq. The private screening came the day after Islamic militants broadcast film of an American hostage being beheaded in Iraq.

The killers said it was to avenge abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Democrat Senator Richard Durbin said of the screening: "There were some awful scenes. It felt like you were descending into one of the wings of hell and sadly it was our own creation." He added: "When you think of the sadism, the violence, the sexual humiliation, after a while you just turn away, you just can't take it any more.

"I still cannot believe that this happened without the knowledge of those at higher levels." Republican-Ben Nighthorse Campbell said: "I don't know how the hell these people got into our army."

Others said they saw images of corpses, women commanded to expose their breasts and sex acts, including forced homosexual sex. But senior Republican Tom DeLay said he thought "some people are overreacting". He added: "The people who are against the war are using this to their political ends."

The New York Times says that methods were sanctioned at the highest level by the US justice department and the CIA.