UK News 04-02-2005 Seven Paras Charged With Murder who: Attorney General Lord Goldsmith what: Says seven paras have been charged with murder of Iraqi civilian where: House of Lords, LONDON when: Thursday snippet: Seven British soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment have been charged with the murder of Iraqi civilian Nadhem Abdullah, who died in Al U`Zayra in southern Iraq on May 11th 2003, following a car chase and what was described by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, as "an incident at the roadside". As yet there are few details. Three of the men have been named as Cpl Scott Evans, Pte William Nerney and Daniel Harding but the other four cannot be named until they have been informed of the charges against them. Lord Goldsmith said "the court martial is likely to be held in this country, but it could happen in Iraq". No date has been set but The Sun`s Neil Syson says the men were reportedly "told to use tough tactics against looters and drug runners to maintain the shock of arrest and are likely to use an obeying orders defence". On Thursday, in Osnabruck, Germany, L/Cpl Darren Larkin was cleared of a charge of "disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind" after he was alleged to have forced Iraqi captives to undress. He still faces other abuse charges arising from a set of photos taken at Camp Bread Basket, says the BBC. And in another case, Trooper Kevin Lee Williams, of the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, an Old Bailey trial for the killing of lawyer Hassan Sayyed in Ad-Dayr, in south-eastern Iraq, on August 3rd 2003. Sunday was an historic day as Iraqis went to the ballot box in the first free election for half a century. "Election officials estimated that about 60 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots despite a wave of suicide bombings, mortar and gun attacks," says Monday`s Telegraph. Results emerging later in the week indicate that the government is likely to be dominated by a Shia coalition backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq`s leading cleric. But, says The Times on Friday, although 1.6 million votes have been counted, "there is still no official turnout figure and the results represent just 10 per cent of polling centres". News of the election was overshadowed by the largest single loss of British life in Iraq since military action began. An RAF Hercules C130K transport aircraft left Baghdad bound for the city of Balad, but crashed 25 miles outside the capital at about 4.40pm local time on Sunday, killing ten UK servicemen. "The militant Ansar al-Islam group claimed on a website it had brought down the Hercules with an anti-tank missile as it flew at low altitude," says The Guardian. Later, a group that called itself "the Green Brigade" staked their claim. They released a videotape which "showed footage of a finger pressing a button, and then footage of two missiles or rockets flying up into the air. The video did not show any impact with a plane. Instead, the video cut to footage of people walking through a plane`s wreckage burning on the ground." However, while shots of the wreckage look very convincing, military experts are sceptical about the plausibility of the claims. A report by The Sun on Tuesday says the three most likely reasons for the crash were a bomb on to the plane, hazardous special forces cargo on board or a highly sophisticated and powerful ground-to-air missile, unlike the Soviet-designed shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles commonly used by Iraqi rebels. [... more]

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