But dozens of our troops still being probed over Iraq

DOZENS of British troops are under investigation over incidents during the Iraq War despite ministers vowing the witch-hunt would be scrapped last year.

A 70-strong investigations unit is probing 37 incidents involving 151 allegations, official figures reveal.

Defence sources said the number of incidents had dropped to 31 in recent days.

But it means troops who served in the war more than a decade ago could still face murder charges.

Meanwhile a ‘handful’ of cases of alleged criminal behaviour in Afghanistan are also being probed as part of an inquiry called Operation Northmoor, sources confirmed.

It comes after the Government announced in February 2017 that the £60million Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) would be shut down following a Daily Mail campaign that exposed its failings.

Sir Michael Fallon, the then defence secretary, said Ihat – which once had 3,600 claims on its books – would have its caseload reduced to just 20 by that summer. He predicted those inquiries would be closed by military police in 2018.

But figures published by the Ministry of Defence this week show soldiers are still being investigated by a new body based in Wiltshire called the Service Police Legacy Investigations (SPLI).

The unit is made up of some 40 members of the military police, 20 contractors and ten civil servants.

A total of 19 of the 37 incidents are under full investigation, with the remaining 18 thought to be ‘directed lines of inquiry’, according to the figures covering up to the end of December 2018.

The MoD said in the 18 months since the SPLI took on the remaining cases in July 2017 it had disposed of 88 per cent of its caseload.

This means it has closed or is in the process of closing 1,127 allegations. It received an extra 12 allegations in this period.

In the period from September 2018 to December 2018, the SPLI closed eight full investigations and six directed lines of inquiry. If the investigations continue at the same rate, they could last at least another year.

The MoD said: ‘The remaining cases are being dealt with as quickly and diligently as possible.’