U.K. soldiers sentenced for civilian abuse

OSNABRUECK, Germany – Three British soldiers were sentenced Friday to as many as two years in prison and dismissed from the military for abusing Iraqi civilians in the southern city of Basra in 2003 – a case that raised comparisons to abuse by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib prison.

Lance Cpl. Mark Cooley was sentenced to two years in prison, Cpl. Daniel Kenyon 18 months and Lance Cpl. Darren Larkin five months. All were dismissed from the service “with disgrace.”

A court-martial this week found Kenyon and Cooley guilty of mistreating Iraqi detainees suspected of looting a humanitarian aid warehouse outside Basra in May 2003.

Larkin had previously pleaded guilty.

Pictures of the abuse, which included an Iraqi hoisted on a forklift and two naked men forced to simulate sexual acts, provoked dismay in Britain after being published in newspapers, leading to comparisons with the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.