Across the Middle East, Britain’s role in conflict has often been indirect yet consequential. From the late imperial period to contemporary defence partnerships, the United Kingdom has supplied weapons, technology, finance and military personnel to regional allies engaged in wars and security operations. These relationships, justified in terms of strategic stability and alliance commitments, have at times intersected with credible allegations of human-rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law. This series examines Britain’s involvement country by country, tracing military deployments, arms transfers, technical support and financial ties to assess where and how British policy has shaped conflicts across the region, and what responsibilities may follow.
During the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), the United Kingdom had a complex and controversial relationship with Iraq. The UK government assumed a policy of neutrality, stating it would not directly supply lethal weapons to either side in the war. However, it allowed exports to Iraq of many dual-use or military-support items, such as radar components, tank spare parts, military vehicles or equipment parts, industrial chemicals, and engineering equipment for weapons production.
In 1985, Uhde Ltd—a British branch of a German company—built a £14 million chlorine plant called “Falluja 2” in Iraq. The UK’s Export Credits Guarantee Department provided financial backing for the project, even though it officially acknowledged a “strong possibility” that the plant might produce mustard gas. After the first Persian Gulf War halted the facility’s completion, the UK government paid Uhde £300,000 in 1990. Similarly, Britain reportedly sold thiodiglycol and thionyl chloride to Iraq in 1988 and 1989; these elements are known to be a nerve gas precursor.
In 1989, one year after Saddam’s troops used chemical weapons to massacre the Kurds at Halabja, British companies were in Baghdad presenting their products at a military exhibition. Due to protests, the UK government refused to issue the temporary export licences needed for BAE Systems to show its Harrier and Tornado aircraft. However, the Hawk 100 fighter trainer was allowed to be displayed.
In 2003, jointly with the United States, the United Kingdom took part in the invasion of Iraq and initiated the deployment of troops to the country, under the banner of Operation Telic. This operation lasted until May 2011, when the final British forces withdrew from the area. At its height, British forces numbered 46,000 during the invasion phase, and lost 179 servicemen, 136 of whom were killed in action.
In 2025, over 30 witnesses who either served in or served alongside British Special Forces came forward on the BBC’s Panorama programme to speak out on cases of illegal killings and executions of detainees, including children, torture and inhuman/cruel treatment, rape or other forms of sexual violence, during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prior to this, hundreds of Iraqis who were detained during the Iraq war had testified to the abuse suffered at the hands of UK forces, showcasing a pattern of beatings, sleep and sensory deprivation, “stress positions,” deprivation of food and water, sexual and religious humiliation, and even sexual abuse.
In May 2003, a British Parachute Regiment patrol entered the village of Uzayra in southern Iraq, where a violent encounter allegedly ensued between the patrol and local villagers.
Reports claimed that the patrol brutally assaulted several unarmed Iraqi civilians, causing serious injuries from which one died, an 18-year-old named Nadhem Abdullah. The soldiers always denied murder and violent disorder. Allegedly, over the course of this altercation, two women who tried to intervene were also assaulted, one being pregnant and the other having given birth recently. The seven men involved were court-martialled in 2005 in Colchester, Essex, but the court ruled there was insufficient evidence against them and they were acquitted. The Parachute Regiment soldiers always denied murder and violent disorder.
In September 2003, a 26-year-old man named Baha Mousa, who worked as a hotel receptionist, was arrested by British Forces following a counter-insurgency operation and taken to a military base. According to the reports, Mousa and six other men who were detained were held for 36 hours and continually beaten while handcuffed and forced to wear sacks on their heads. The man eventually succumbed to the violence, with the post-mortem stage showing over 93 injuries to the body, including fractured ribs and a broken nose. Prosecutors argued that this was not a case where soldiers act in the heat of the moment, while in a firefight or under stress, and might commit a grave mistake; rather this was premeditated torture and abuse of prisoners who are unable to protect themselves. Those accused denied this.
One of the men involved, Cpl. Donald Payne of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment pleaded guilty to the charge of inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians at the start of a court-martial in 2006, while the rest have pleaded not guilty.
It was in Iraq that the British armed forces started running detention facilities to detain and interrogate prisoners or potentially valuable intelligence targets.
According to the ECCHR, in Iraq, British Forces operated two different types of detention facilities. The first sort was a temporary detention/processing facility located within most of the UK bases in Southern Iraq, where prisoners were usually taken on a first phase, after their arrest. It was at these locations that victims were “tactically questioned” or interrogated, prior to being moved further up the detention chain. The second type of facility was the longer-term detention and internment facility already described above, which was designed for periods of extended internment and interrogation, and of which there was only ever one in operation at any given time between 2003 and 2008.
In both these types of facilities, abuses and torture took place during the analysed period. Despite being banned by the UK government in 1972, Iraqi civilian detainees were still subjected to the five techniques formerly used by UK Armed Forces personnel, which are: hooding, stress positions (e.g. prolonged kneeling), noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, and deprivation of food and water, which are the most used and self-explanatory. However, different techniques were deployed further to cause distress, pain and discomfort upon the detainees.
Sexually related actions were often used, such as playing pornography loudly during long periods of time, superimposing pictures of detainees over paedophilic or pornographic images and threatening them that these pictures would be shared with their families and communities, unless they cooperate (p.36). On one occasion, a detainee claimed that soldiers masturbated in front of him and threatened him with rape, as well as threats to his female family members (p.85). Female soldiers would also expose themselves to male detainees on some occasions (p.86). These examples showcased how UK personnel used sexual harassment as a tool for interrogation, targeting the religious sensitivities of the detainees on matters related to sexual matters.
After Saddam’s overthrow following the US-led invasion of Iraq, the old Iraqi army collapsed, and a new army and police force had to be reinstated. In 2004, after international sanctions were lifted, 26 licences for £25m of exports to Iraq, including 500 Assault rifles, 21,428 semi-automatic pistols, 100 sub-machine guns
Between 2012 and 2022, Iraq was granted 196 limited and 99 unlimited export licenses. The number of approved licenses gradually increased during this period, peaking at 35 in 2017. This rise in UK-approved exports may be attributed to the UK government’s 2014 commitment to assist the Government of Iraq. Aircraft, helicopters, drones, Small arms, Armoured vehicles, and tanks accounted for the largest share of exports by monetary value.
When ISIS captured large parts of Iraq in 2014, the UK and other countries began supplying equipment again. Heavy machine guns and ammunition were approved for export and mainly sent to Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who were fighting ISIS in northern Iraq. The total cost of the exports was £1.6 million plus an estimated £475,000 in transport costs.
In 2017, Amnesty International published a report titled ‘Iraq: Turning A Blind Eye,’ which documented extensive human rights violations, primarily attributed to Shia militias affiliated with the Iraqi government and directed against Sunni citizens. The report noted that these militias utilised European-supplied weaponry in reprisal attacks, some of which constituted war crimes. According to the Arms Trade Treaty annual reports on imports and exports, among many other European countries, including Germany, Poland and Italy, the UK supplied 550 sniper rifles and 800 light machine guns to Iraq.
The following year, the Iraqi government, including the Office of the Prime Minister, initiated investigations into allegations of abuse and atrocities committed by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). However, findings were seldom disclosed to the public, and accountability for human rights violations remained limited.
According to a 2020 report from the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, over 500 civilians lost their lives during protests beginning in October 2019. This figure was corroborated in August by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which recorded 487 protester fatalities and 7,715 incidents involving injuries to protesters.
Iraq
In 2003, jointly with the United States, the United Kingdom took part in the invasion of Iraq and initiated the deployment of troops to the country, under the banner of Operation Telic. This operation lasted until May 2011, when the final British forces withdrew from the area. At its height, British forces numbered 46,000 during the invasion phase, and lost 179 servicemen, 136 of whom were killed in action.
In 2025, over 30 witnesses who either served in or served alongside British Special Forces came forward on the BBC’s Panorama programme to speak out on cases of illegal killings and executions of detainees, including children, torture and inhuman/cruel treatment, rape or other forms of sexual violence, during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prior to this, hundreds of Iraqis who were detained during the Iraq war had testified to the abuse suffered at the hands of UK forces, showcasing a pattern of beatings, sleep and sensory deprivation, “stress positions,” deprivation of food and water, sexual and religious humiliation, and even sexual abuse.
In May 2003, a British Parachute Regiment patrol entered the village of Uzayra in southern Iraq, where a violent encounter allegedly ensued between the patrol and local villagers. Reports mentioned that the patrol brutally assaulted several unarmed Iraqi civilians, causing serious injuries from which one died, an 18-year-old named Nadhem Abdullah. Over the course of this altercation, two women who tried to intervene were also assaulted, one being pregnant and the other having given birth recently. The seven men involved were court-martialled in 2005 in Colchester, Essex, but the ruling was that there was insufficient evidence against them, and they were acquitted. The Parachute Regiment soldiers always denied murder and violent disorder.
In September 2003, a 26-year-old man named Baha Mousa, who worked as a hotel receptionist, was arrested by British Forces following a counter-insurgency operation and taken to a military base. According to the reports, Mousa and six other men who were detained were held for 36 hours and continually beaten while handcuffed and forced to wear sacks on their heads. The man eventually succumbed to the violence, with the post-mortem stage showing over 93 injuries to the body, including fractured ribs and a broken nose. This was not a case where soldiers act in the heat of the moment, while in a firefight or under stress, and might commit a grave mistake; this was premeditated torture and abuse of prisoners who are unable to protect themselves.
One of the men involved, Cpl. Donald Payne of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment pleaded guilty to the charge of inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians at the start of a court-martial in 2006, while the rest have pleaded not guilty.
It was in Iraq that the British armed forces started running detention facilities to detain and interrogate prisoners or potentially valuable intelligence targets. According to the ECCHR, in Iraq, British Forces operated two different types of detention facilities. The first sort was a temporary detention/processing facility located within most of the UK bases in Southern Iraq, where prisoners were usually taken on a first phase, after their arrest. It was at these locations that victims were “tactically questioned” or interrogated, prior to being moved further up the detention chain. The second type of facility was the longer-term detention and internment facility already described above, which was designed for periods of extended internment and interrogation, and of which there was only ever one in operation at any given time between 2003 and 2008.
In both these types of facilities, abuses and torture took place during the analysed period. Despite being banned by the UK government in 1972, Iraqi civilian detainees were still subjected to the five techniques formerly used by UK Armed Forces personnel, which are: hooding, stress positions (e.g. prolonged kneeling), noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, and deprivation of food and water, which are the most used and self-explanatory. However, different techniques were deployed further to cause distress, pain and discomfort upon the detainees.
Sexually related actions were often used, such as playing pornography loudly during long periods of time, superimposing pictures of detainees over paedophilic or pornographic images and threatening them that these pictures would be shared with their families and communities, unless they cooperate (p.36). On one occasion, a detainee claimed that soldiers masturbated in front of him and threatened him with rape, as well as threats to his female family members (p.85). Female soldiers would also expose themselves to male detainees on some occasions (p.86). These examples showcased how UK personnel used sexual harassment as a tool for interrogation, targeting the religious sensitivities of the detainees on matters related to sexual matters.
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