Iraqi judge seeks arrest of British soldiers

An Iraqi judge has issued arrest warrants for two British soldiers freed after a British raid in Basra, an Iraqi lawyer said yesterday, and thousands rallied in the southern city in support of a new constitution.

Judge Raghib Hassan issued the warrants on Thursday, accusing the men of killing an Iraqi policeman and wounding another, carrying unlicensed weapons and holding false identification, Kassim al-Sabti, the head of the lawyers' syndicate in Basra told Reuters.

Britain's Secretary of State for Defence John Reid said the Ministry of Defence had not received any arrest warrant for British soldiers in Iraq, adding that in any case the warrants would have no legal basis.

"Iraqi law is very clear. British personnel are immune from Iraqi legal process. They remain subject to British law," he said in a statement.

The whereabouts of the two soldiers was not clear.

British forces mounted a bid to free the two soldiers last Monday, but were initially repelled as a crowd of angry Iraqis petrol-bombed an armoured vehicle.

Later British forces returned and armoured vehicles broke down the walls of the jail. The two were freed from a private house nearby, where they were believed to have been held by a local militia.

Basra authorities said British troops killed two Iraqi police during the raid.

Monday's flare-up has harmed the relationship British forces were able to build with local Iraqis in and around Basra, a relatively stable city compared with other parts of Iraq.

Basra's governing council has suspended all co-operation with the British until they apologise, guarantee that similar actions do not recur and provide compensation for damage inflicted.

Two investigations into the events leading up to the rescue are under way by Iraqi authorities and the British military.

Iraqi police said US troops killed a family of four in Kerbala, south of Baghdad, yesterday, reflecting military nerves on edge across the country.

Police said the family's passenger car apparently got too close to a US convoy, which opened fire, killing a father and mother and their 13-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter.