Pictures 'appalling' says Blair

Tony Blair said today that photographs allegedly showing British troops abusing Iraqi civilians should not be allowed to "tarnish" the good name of the Armed Forces.

Tony Blair said today that photographs allegedly showing British troops abusing Iraqi civilians should not be allowed to "tarnish" the good name of the Armed Forces.

The Prime Minister expressed his "disgust" at the "shocking, appalling" images of Iraqis being forced to simulate sexual acts and being bound and threatened, allegedly by British soldiers.

He told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions that the circumstances in which the alleged events came to take place would be fully investigated by the Army.

"I think everyone finds those photographs shocking and appalling - there are simply no other words to describe them," he said.

"The difference between democracy and tyranny is not that in a democracy bad things don't happen. It is that in a democracy when they do happen, people are held to account. That is what is happening under our judicial system.

"The vast majority of those 65,000 British soldiers who have served in Iraq have done so with distinction, with courage and with great honour to this country.

"So whilst we express in a unified way, I know, our disgust at those pictures, I hope we do not allow that to tarnish the good name, fully deserved, of the British Armed Forces."