The shocking photographs were given to a British newspaper only days after the world saw pictures of US troops tormenting prisoners in a jail once used as a torture chamber by Saddam Hussein.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush issued angry statements denouncing the troops, as Arabs warned the pictures could cripple efforts to win over the Iraqi people.
London’s Daily Mirror, which published a front-page picture of a prisoner being urinated on by a British soldier, said it was given the photographs by disgusted troops from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment.
The soldiers said they were making the photos public to show why the US-UK Coalition was encountering such fierce resistance in Iraq.
Mr Bush yesterday angrily denounced the abuse by US soldiers, vowing the perpetrators would be “taken care of”.
Arab satellite television stations, seen by millions of Arabs and Muslims, began their news bulletins with the pictures, which they said showed the “savagery” of US troops against Iraqi prisoners.
