The Royal Military Police are investigating a new allegation against British troops in Iraq after a 14-year-old Iraqi detained in 2003 with a group of looters claimed he was sexually abused.

The teenager, named only as Hassan, has made a full statement in which he alleged he was forced to indulge in oral sex with a fellow detainee while British soldiers watched.

The allegation arises from the so-called Camp Bread Basket affair, when Iraqi looters were arrested and taken by British troops to a base south of Basra in southern Iraq. Four members of the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were convicted of abusive treatment of some of the detainees and were sentenced to up to two years in prison.

The abuse came to light when one of the accused soldiers took photographs of the incidents at Camp Bread Basket and handed them to a shop back in Britain to be processed. A shop assistant called the police. The photographs caused an outcry when they were published around the world.

Ten Iraqis are currently pursuing compensation claims against the Ministry of Defence in connection with the alleged abuses at Camp Bread Basket. Last week the family of Baha Musa, who died in British military custody in 2003, and eight other Iraqi detainees held at the same time who suffered ill-treatment, were awarded £2.8 million in compensation.

Yesterday the MoD said the latest allegation was a new development, and the Royal Military Police had been called in to investigate.

Hassan, now 19, revealed in The Independent on Sunday that he was rounded up with a friend while trying to steal milk cartons from a food-distribution centre. He claimed he was whipped, beaten and forced to engage in oral sex with his friend.

The suspected looters had been arrested in an operation codenamed Ali Baba, the name given to thieves by British troops in Iraq. Mazin Younis, of the Iraqi League, told the newspaper that while Hassan was being forced to engage in the sex act, his British captors “laughed raucously and took photographs”.

He said Hassan had been traumatised by the experience. More than 80 allegations of abuse were now in the pipeline, he claimed, and would form the basis of a series of actions at the European Court of Human Rights.

A spokeswoman for the MoD said: ““All but a handful of the more than 120,000 British troops who have served in Iraq have conducted themselves to the highest standards of behaviour, displaying integrity and selfless commitment.”

She added: “All allegations of abuse are investigated thoroughly and, where proven, those responsible are punished and the abused are compensated. The Army has done a great deal since the cases of abuse relating to the death of Baha Mousa in 2003. Procedures and training have been improved. But we are not complacent and continue to demand the very highest standards of conduct from all our troops.”

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