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British soldiers targeted by a roadside bomb in Basra. AP/Press Association Images
operation iraqi freedom

UK says sorry for drowning of Iraqi boy forced into canal by British soldiers

The soldiers were acquitted of manslaughter in a British court.

THE UK MINISTRY of Defence has apologised for the 2003 death of an Iraqi teen who drowned after being forced into a canal by four British soldiers.

Officials said the department is “extremely sorry” for the death of 15-year-old Ahmad Jabbar Kareem Ali, who had been taken into custody by British forces on suspicion of looting in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

An independent inquiry into the death led by a former High Court judge said the soldiers’ failure to help the boy after he started to drown was the “certain” cause of his death. He did not know how to swim.

The soldiers were tried in a British court for manslaughter and were acquitted in 2006.

Read: Islamic State mass graves reveal thousands of dead bodies and extent of horror >

Read: Iraqi forces arrest would-be teenage bomber days after Kurdish wedding attack >

Author
Associated Foreign Press
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