SAS to face charges over hunt for Red Caps’ killers
SAS soldiers who tried to find the killers of six British Red Caps in Iraq in 2003 face prosecution after a fouryear probe, it can be revealed.
Ministry of Defence police will hand a file to the military’s prosecution service recommending soldiers should be charged with assaulting Iraqi policemen.
As many as 40 elite troops, including a former SAS commander, could face charges of actual bodily harm or grievous bodily harm. If found guilty, they could be jailed.
It will be the first time an investigation involving the SAS in Iraq has been deemed serious enough to be passed to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA), the military version of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Meanwhile, not a single Iraqi has been held responsible for the Red Caps massacre. The Iraqi policemen, who soldiers believe knew
‘Washed their hands of my son’s case’
the killers’ names, have already been awarded £800,000 compensation.
Six Royal Military Policemen were executed by ringleaders of a baying mob in Majar alKabir, near Basra, southern Iraq, in June 2003, weeks after Saddam Hussein was toppled. Some bodies were riddled with bullets, while others had marks suggesting they had been dragged, tied up or beaten with rifles.
The six murdered Red Caps were: Sgt Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41; Cpl Russell Aston, 30; Cpl Paul Long, 24; Cpl Simon Miller, 21; L/Cpl Benjamin McGowan Hyde, 23; and L/Cpl Tom Keys, 20.
Six days after they were slaughtered, SAS soldiers were sent to hunt their killers in a top secret mission codenamed Operation Jocal. The troops visited the police station where the killings took place. They removed any clothing identifying them as Special Forces, and put on uniforms associated with the Red Caps, a tactic intended to convince the policemen that they were friends of the murdered Red Caps.
It was during this operation that Iraqi policemen claimed they were beaten with rifles, punched and had their heads banged against walls. They said they were hooded and forced into stress positions. Four of the Iraqis, named as Ali Hamid Lazim, Haidar Mohammad, Mohammed Zboon and Mustafa Jbara, claimed they needed hospital treatment after their ordeal.
Nine years later, in 2012, it emerged that the Ministry of Defence police had launched an investigation. The following year, nine of the Iraqi police officers who said they were tortured were awarded around £800,000 in compensation by the MoD after law firm Leigh Day took on the case.
Last night it emerged MoD police are preparing a file to hand over to the SPA next month, recommending the soldiers for prosecution.
Corporal Simon Miller was shot 34 times in the slaughter. Last night his grieving father said he was ‘disgusted’. John Miller, 64, of Washington, Tyne and Wear, said: ‘We are inconsolable. These SAS soldiers are heroes who tried to find my son’s killers. Where is our justice?
‘All of these investigations against our troops and nobody has done anything to find the murderers of British soldiers, including our son.
‘They washed their hands of my son’s case and have done nothing.’