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Military police are investigating claims that a British regiment committed war crimes against Iraqi prisoners during the Gulf war.

A former senior warrant officer in the 1st Battalion the Royal Highland Fusiliers, Jim Barrow, made the allegations against his old regiment in a series of letters to Defence ministers. The allegations are said to be based on "mess room boasts" about ill-treatment of prisoners - including the "execution" of one Iraqi. An MoD spokesman said an interim report by the Special Investigations Branch of the Royal Military Police had so far found no evidence to back the reports, but that "because of their nature we must treat them seriously". The allegations relate to 1991 when the regiment helped guard Iraqi PoW's held in Saudi Arabia; though Mr Barrow, now 40, was not serving there at the time. Mr Barrow is seeking to sue the Army for medical and employer negligence.

The regiment, which is currently based in Germany, said it had no comment. Michael Streeter