SOLDIERS from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers are facing charges over alleged serious sexual assaults and abuse of prisoners in Iraq.

Royal Military Police (RMP)are recommending prosecution after a year-long investigation of photographs that appear to show Iraqi prisoners in British custody being forced to engage in homosexual acts.

A source close to the investigation said “up to three” soldiers in the Fusiliers faced charges of sexual assault, inciting rape or breach of the Geneva convention. It would be the first prosecution of British soldiers for serious crimes in Iraq.

The abuse came to light when staff at a Staffordshire shop alerted the police to photographs handed in for developing by Gary Bartlam, a Fusilier, on his return from active service in Iraq. It is not known whether he was responsible for taking the photographs.

The images, now held by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), are described as similar to those of American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners, which caused outrage last week. Some show Iraqis apparently being forced to have oral and anal sex.

In a separate case the RMP are pressing for the prosecution of at least one soldier from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment (QLR) in relation to the killing of an Iraqi prisoner, Baha Mousa, while in British custody. Mousa, a 26-year-old hotel worker, died after being beaten by QLR soldiers last September.

A member of the Territorial Army came forward last week to give further evidence in the Mousa case, testifying that he had witnessed the man being beaten by QLR soldiers.

The MoD confirmed that the inquiries had been completed and the files passed to the Army Prosecuting Authority, which will decide on whether to proceed with charges. It comes as fresh evidence emerged this weekend of brutality and sexual abuse by US soldiers in Iraq.

Military officials in America indicated that they were aware of photographs of US soldiers having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner; beating a prisoner nearly to death; and acting “inappropriately” with a dead body. A videotape, made by US soldiers, is said to show Iraqi coalition guards raping boys.

The US military has charged a female soldier with abusing Iraqi prisoners. Private Lynndie England, 21, who has been pictured smiling and pointing at naked prisoners, is the seventh US soldier to be charged over the alleged abuse.

This weekend Kelly Tilford, the British woman who raised the alarm about Bartlam’s film, described the scenes she saw in four photographs developed last May. “The first one was this Iraqi who was naked and being held up in this big net,” said Tilford, 23, of Tamworth, Staffordshire. “You could see what I guessed were British servicemen standing around.

“Then there were two shots of Iraqi men performing oral sex on each other. The man who was performing the sex act looked totally disgusted. I think that in at least one of the photos there were British soldiers in the background.

“The final shot was of two Iraqi men having intercourse. You could tell they were being forced to do it. Again I think there were British servicemen in this shot.”

This weekend The Sunday Times spoke to witnesses of Mousa’s death at the QLR’s Basra headquarters. He was among hotel staff arrested by QLR soldiers after a raid to capture the hotel manager, a suspected Iraqi resistance fighter.

The case for prosecution has been strengthened by the testimony of a Territorial Army member who said he witnessed QLR soldiers beating Mousa. Five members of the QLR were recalled and interviewed.

An Iraqi arrested with Mousa, Kifah Taha, 44, said he and fellow hotel workers heard Mousa’s last words as he was being beaten at the QLR headquarters: “I heard him say, ‘Blood from my nose, it’s broken’. Then I heard him shouting, ‘I am dying, I will die’. Then there was no sound at all.”

Medical records written by the British authorities will be used by Iraqis seeking to sue the government under the Human Rights Act. Notes by Major James Ralph, an army field hospital consultant, record Taha as a “detainee” who had suffered a “severe beating”.

The government is expected to confirm this week that Britain will send up to 3,000 extra troops to Iraq after the withdrawal of Spanish forces.

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