Four British soldiers condemned over death of 15-year-old Iraqi

Soliders forced teenager into canal before leaving him to drown, says former High Court judge

160916-wd-uktroopsiraq.jpg
(Image credit: Getty Images)

A report by former High Court Judge Sir George Newman has condemned the actions of four British soldiers in 2003, who "forced" a 15-year-old Iraqi boy into a canal and allowed him to drown.

The four soldiers, who were not named in the report, had been "acquitted of manslaughter at a court martial in 2006", reports the BBC.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The report states that Ahmed was observed "floundering and submerging" in the water, with one of the British soldiers saying he "would have to go in and get him" if he came up to the surface again.

"He did not resurface. The soldiers then left without any attempt to rescue him," stated Newman.

The report said the soldier's actions were a "clumsy, ill-directed and bullying piece of conduct, engaged in without consideration of the risk of harm to which it could give rise".

Reports from the Iraq Fatality Investigations are "designed to find out what happened in a situation, not to apportion blame", and a second part of the report "outlining lessons to be learned" will be released at a later date, reports the Daily Mirror.

Explore More