THE images are gruesome, and calculated to cause the utmost distress. Two dead and bloodstained soldiers in unmarked desert fatigues lie side by side on a dusty road. For a while yesterday there was doubt about their identity or even whether they were genuine coalition casualties. Now we know; they are British.

Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based television station, repeatedly showed yesterday afternoon a 30-second sequence which no one here will wish to see. The station said the pictures were recorded on Tuesday in al-Zubayr, near Basra.

British sources in Qatar said last night that the footage showed the bodies of two soldiers attached to the Desert Rats missing in action since their Land Rover was ambushed by Iraqi forces on Sunday. The footage brought immediate condemnation from British commanders and politicians, and tears to the eyes of the dead men’s comrades in the Gulf who saw it.

Relatives of the two men were being informed that their status was being changed to “missing believed killed” pending formal identification.

In the same brief sequence the Arab-language satellite channel showed images of two hostages looking sombre and uncomfortable. Both men were black, one in his 40s and the other much younger and wearing dreadlocks. Behind them a group of animated Iraqis held up fingers in V-for-victory signs.

Unlike Sunday’s al-Jazeera footage taken from Iraqi state television which claimed to show a group of American prisoners-of-war, there was this time no audio, no attempt to push a microphone in the men’s faces and question them.

Their voices were not heard, and their clothes betrayed no identity. UK National Contingent HQ do not believe the two hostages are British.

Al-Jazeera also showed shots of a crowd surrounding and dancing on an overturned Land Rover and its trailer with a British military numberplate. The station also showed pictures of what appeared to be a broken Phoenix spotter drone with RAF insignia, of the type used by the Royal Artillery to spot targets.

Senior British figures are furious at al-Jazeera’s decision to screen the pictures, particularly those of the dead men, which will be widely seen throughout the Arab world. A Ministry of Defence spokesman, describing it as a flagrant and disgraceful breach of the Geneva Convention, said: “We deplore the decision by al-Jazeera to broadcast such material and call upon them to desist immediately. We request all other media outlets not to become tools for Iraqi propaganda by rebroadcasting such material.”

Commanders are only too well aware of the damaging psychological effect such images can have if seen back home. They well remember, during the last Gulf War, the parading of the British pilots John Peters and John Nichol, looking extremely battered and bruised, on Iraqi television.

Other coalition pilots from Italy and the US were also seen during that conflict, forced to read out pro-Iraqi propaganda on Iraqi television.

But all will remember even more keenly the images from Somalia in 1993, when the corpses of US soldiers were dragged triumphantly through the streets of Mogadishu. It was not long after those deeply disturbing images had been seen in America that the troops were brought home.

Group Captain Al Lockwood, the British spokesman in Qatar, said: “Showing pictures of dead soldiers and prisoners of war on television contravenes the Geneva Convention and we believe (al-Jazeera) are being irresponsible by showing them.”

He admitted that the coalition had mistakenly allowed images of PoWs to be filmed. “We had one or two mistakes early on in the campaign when enemy PoWs were shown on UK networks. There has been a general consensus that it is a violation of the Geneva Convention, and they will no longer do it.”

Politicians also condemned the pictures of the dead men. A spokesman for Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, said: “If it is confirmed that these two soldiers are British Service personnel, we find it deeply repellent that any television station has chosen to parade their bodies.” Gerald Howarth, a Tory defence spokesman, said: “Iraq are brilliant at seeking to undermine the spirit of the coalition forces and if al-Jazeera has been aiding and abetting them it would be disgusting.”

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