A man said to have been an interpreter for the British Army in Basra has been killed by militia gunmen on the very day that his wife learnt she was pregnant with their first child.

Nine or ten masked men went to the home of Moayed Ahmed Khalaf in the al-Hayaniah district of Basra and beat him in front of his wife and mother, four sources told The Times. They then dragged him away, telling the frantic women that they would bring him back shortly. Khalaf’s body was found on Al Qa’ed Street later that night. He had been shot multiple times, according to Colonel Ali Manshed, commander of the Shatt-al-Arab police station.

A cousin, a close friend and two other interpreters all told The Times that Khalaf, 31, had worked for the British at their Basra airport base. Colonel Manshed said that everyone questioned by the police had said Khalaf was an interpreter, adding: “He was a good man, everyone liked him and there was no other reason to kill him.”

However Major Mike Shearer, a spokesman at the airport base, said that the army could find no record of Khalaf having worked for the army.

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• Army interpreters told to leave Basra

Last week The Times highlighted the plight of two other interpreters who worked for the British. One narrowly escaped with his life when kidnappers seized his cousin by mistake. The other’s house was attacked and destroyed while he was at work but his wife and two children were at home.

Colonel Saleem Agaa al-Zabon, who leads Basra’s special forces, said that the militias had stepped up their hunt for “collaborators” since the British withdrew from Basra City two weeks ago, and urged all interpreters to leave Basra or be killed. Colonel Manshed repeated that warning yesterday, telling The Times: “All the people who worked for the British forces are not safe now. Even people who quit one or two years ago are in danger.”

Since early last month the Government has been reviewing whether the Army’s 90-odd interpreters should be offered sanctuary in Britain when British troops withdraw from southern Iraq. MPs yesterday urged Gordon Brown to accelerate that review.

“Time is of the essence,” said Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman. “Many of these people are in hourly, let alone daily, peril. It is clear that we have a debt towards these people and should honour it by letting them come safely to Britain.”

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: “Conducting a long review is no substitute for making it clear that any claims they make for asylum in the UK will be rapidly facilitated.”

Martin Salter, a Labour member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “We should be doing the right thing by those people who now find their lives in danger purely because of the work they did for British troops.”

The Times visited Khalaf’s house several times over the weekend but it was locked and empty. However Khalaf’s cousin, a 36-year-old engineer named Majeed Hamid, another close friend of Khalaf’s who asked for his name to be withheld, and two other interpreters all spoke to The Times.

Khalaf had also worked as an English teacher at Basra College and had married a fellow teacher named Wafrah two months ago, they said. The couple had gone to the doctor last Wednesday evening and learnt that Wafrah, 29, was pregnant. They returned to the house they shared with Khalaf’s mother about 7pm. Thirty minutes later the militia – almost certainly members of al-Mahdi army – arrived in three vehicles.

The four sources disagreed only on whether Khalaf was still working for the British at the time of his death.

The Army’s insistence that Khalaf did not work for them is puzzling. The Times has always been careful to corroborate interpreters’ stories. It is possible Khalaf was working for a private contractor at the base, not the Army, though his associates denied that. It is possible he gave the army a false name to protect himself from the militias. Iraqi names can also be spelt any number of ways when translated phonetically into English.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman insisted that the Government took its responsibilities towards its Iraqi employees very seriously and that “every measure possible within the constraints of the operational environment is taken to ensure their security whilst in our employment”. He said it gave them the same body armour as British soldiers while out on patrol, varied their working hours and locations, and provided a few with accommodation. A suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq fighter believed responsible for the assassination of a US-allied Sunni tribal leader in Anbar province was arrested north of Baghdad. Fallah Khalifa Hi-yas Fayyas al-Jumayli, an Iraqi also known as Abu Khamis, was seized on Saturday in a raid west of Balad after intelligence reports linked him to the killing of Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the military said.

Abu Risha, 37, was leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, also known as the Anbar Awakening – an alliance of clans backing the Iraqi Government and US forces against al-Qaeda in Iraq. He and three companions were killed on Thursday in Ramadi.

Pleas for asylum

August 7 2007 The Times reports that 91 Iraqi interpreters working for the MoD and their families will not be given asylum when British forces withdraw. The interpreters say they face persecution and death

August 8 Gordon Brown orders an urgent review into their treatment, demanding an explanation. Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, says the question is broader than asylum for interpreters, as the British have over the past four years employed up to 20,000 local staff

August 9 The Times reveals that if asylum regulations were relaxed, 600 Iraqis would be eligible to settle in Britain. An Iraqi translator who travelled to Britain independently has been granted asylum

August 10 Interpreters tell The Times that they will have no protection once British troops leave Iraq because they believe a majority of the Iraqi police have been infiltrated by militias that want them dead

August 12 An interpreter claims that about 60 colleagues have been killed working for the British

August 15 The Times reports the story of two brothers who work as interpreters, one of whom has been killed. The other is in hiding

August 21 A senior diplomatic official tells The Times that the Government accepts that it must give sanctuary to interpreters

September 14 A leading member of Basra’s security forces warns interpreters working for the British Army to leave Basra or be killed, after militiamen attacked and destroyed the home of one and narrowly failed to kidnap another

Source: Times Archives

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