Video Is Said to Show Abuse of Iraqis

Video images of Iraqi youths being beaten with batons and fists by men who appear to be British soldiers aired Sunday throughout the Middle East and in Britain, sparking outrage and prompting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to promise a full investigation.

The tape, said to have been recorded by a British corporal two years ago, was obtained by the News of the World tabloid. It shows Iraqi youths at a demonstration throwing objects at soldiers before running away. The cameraman, in a British accent, urges on the soldiers pursuing them: “Oh yes, oh yes, you’re going to get it. Yes. Naughty little boys.”

The footage, displayed on the News of the World website, is mostly filmed from afar, and no identifying marks can be seen clearly on the soldiers’ uniforms. The newspaper, however, said it had confirmed that the soldiers were British.

The footage, zooming in occasionally, shows soldiers dragging at least three Iraqi youths into a fenced area. The civilians are then pulled to the ground and beaten with batons and fists by at least five soldiers.

The tabloid said the video was filmed in southern Iraq. It did not identify who provided the tape.

The British government said military police had launched an investigation.

“We take seriously any allegations of mistreatment and those will be investigated very fully indeed,” Blair said in South Africa, where he was attending a “progressive governance” summit.

He added that “the overwhelming majority of British troops, in Iraq as elsewhere, behave properly, are doing a great job for our country and for the wider world.”

Arab satellite TV stations, including Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, repeatedly broadcast the footage, juxtaposed with images from the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

“This is good proof of the violations of human rights being committed by British troops in Basra,” said Akil Bahadily, an official at the Basra office of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr.

Basra resident Muhannad Moussaoui said, “We thank God that it comes from their own photography. Many consider the actions normal compared to what happens behind closed doors, which is greater.”

Elsewhere, bomb blasts and shootings Sunday killed at least three people in Baghdad and north of the capital, including an Education Ministry official and an elderly woman, police said. At least 22 people were wounded.

Five people were killed and 35 injured in Baghdad this morning when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt in a queue outside a bank, a police source said.

The explosion scattered bodies into the street in an eastern district of the capital.