Five cases where British troops have been accused of abusing Iraqi civilians, four of them resulting in fatalities, led to prosecutions. Twenty-three soldiers were prosecuted but only five were convicted.

- Baha Musa: the 26-year-old hotel receptionist was arrested by soldiers of The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (QLR) in September 2003 in Basra during an arms search and taken to a temporary detention centre where he was prepared for interrogation. The court martial of five members of the QLR and two from the Intelligence Corps was told that Baha Musa was beaten up and severely mistreated for a period of 36 hours during which he suffered 93 separate injuries. He subsequently died.

Six of the soldiers, including Colonel Jorge Mendonca, the former commanding officer of the QLR, were acquitted of a range of offences in connection with the death of Mr Musa last year. Corporal Donald Payne of the QLR pleaded guilty to the war crime of inhuman treatment, but was found not guilty of murder. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison and dismissed from the Army.

- Ahmed Karheem: the 15-year-old Iraqi was detained as a suspected looter in May 2003 and was allegedly forced to swim across a canal. He drowned. Colour Sergeant Carle Selman of the Coldstream Guards, and Guardsmen Martin McGing and Joseph McCleary and Lance Corporal James Cooke of the Irish Guards, were acquitted of his manslaughter in June, 2006.

- Nadhem Abdullah: the 18-year-old died after being assaulted in al-Ferkah in southern Iraq in May, 2003. Seven soldiers from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regment were charged with his murder. But all were acquitted after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence and the case had not been properly investigated.

- Camp Breadbasket: four soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were convicted in February, 2005, of abusing Iraqi looters who had been taken to the Camp Breadbasket base in southern Iraq, and were sent to prison. The evidence included photographs of the Iraqis being humiliated.

- Hassan Abbad Said: Trooper Kevin Williams of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment was accused of murdering Mr Said near Basra in 2003, but the case was dropped in April. 2005, on the first day of his trial at the Old Bailey when the Crown Prosecution Service conceded there was little prospect of a conviction.

In a sixth case, video footage was broadcast showing some Iraqi youths being beaten by British soldiers during a riot in al-Amarah in southern Iraq in February, 2006. No disciplinary action was taken.

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