Extent of soldiers' injuries in Iraq 'hidden by MoD'

The Government has been accused of hiding the true human cost of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war by failing to reveal the extent of debilitating injuries suffered by soldiers.

While it is well documented that 98 service personnel have lost their lives since the beginning of the conflict, little has been said of the men who have lost limbs and eyes or suffered burns in the same attacks.

The Ministry of Defence has conceded that 4,017 personnel have been medically evacuated from Iraq, but it has repeatedly hidden behind the Data Protection Act, patient confidentiality or Freedom of Information restrictions in failing to provide a greater picture of the wounded.

Almost three years after the invasion, the military insist that the figures have simply not been centrally collated. "To retrospectively collate detailed information... would exceed the upper limit of £600 set by fees regulations," it said in response to one Freedom of Information question.

With Defence Secretary John Reid due to visit injured soldiers in Britain for the first time tomorrow, there was growing pressure from families, former soldiers and MPs to give a true picture of injuries.

"This is not good enough, the British public and our servicemen and women deserve to have a much clearer picture of what is happening in Iraq. People won't understand why the Government has so far been unable to provide informative statistics on casualties sustained in Iraq," said the shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

"The MoD must already hold records on the natures of injuries. Figures illustrating the types of injuries would not have any impact upon the relationship between patient and doctor. If the US Department of Defence can provide similar figures for those US personnel injured in Iraq, then so should the MoD."

In January 2005, a Defence minister Ivor Caplin stated that 790 service personnel had been injured in hostile action and accidents.

Last night, the department could not provide an equivalent figure for the past 12 months. However, it insisted that the number categorised as wounded in action at the main field hospital at Shaibah Logistics base, south of Basra, was less than 200.

Insisting that the department was not "covering up", a spokesman added that it was hoping to collate and publish greater detail of serious injuries by the end of the week.

Several dead soldiers' families - aware that the men's comrades suffered horrendous wounds in the same attacks - have criticised the Government for being less open. One has even gone as far as asking a minister for precise figures but has yet to receive a response.

Sue Smith, whose son, Pte Phillip Hewett, 21, was one of three Staffordshire soldiers killed by a roadside bomb last July, described the injured as the "forgotten soldiers of the Iraq war".

Reg Keys, whose son Tom was among six Royal Military Police officers killed in 2003, added: "Both the American and the British don't want people to know about them."

Corporal Dave Corrigan, a Territorial Army Para, who has undergone four operations on his knee since injuring it while serving as a field ambulance commander during the initial war phase, said: "We are a statistic and they try to hide it and it is so easy to hide the TA because we melt into the background."

Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said he would press the MoD to give a breakdown of battle injuries in Iraq, while James Arbuthnot, Conservative chairman of the all-party Commons Defence Committee, added that he would be asking specific questions.