MOD paid £20 million in Iraq compensation

Taxpayers footed a bill of more than £20 million to settle compensation claims against the British military during the Iraq war.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) settled 1,471 claims from Iraqi nationals between 2003/04 and 2016/17, paying out £21,949,879, according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

The release of the figures comes after Leigh Day solicitors Martyn Day, Sapna Malik and Anna Crowther were cleared of any wrongdoing in pursuing compensation actions for claimants who were later said to have told “deliberate lies”.

The decision finally drew a line under a 13-year legal fight sparked by the Battle of Danny Boy in May 2004, when British troops were given an order to remove the bodies of the 20 Iraqi dead and take them back to a nearby camp along with nine prisoners of war.

The detainees, who were insurgents with the Shia militia Mahdi Army, would go on to claim they had been mistreated and heard the torture and murder of their compatriots.