A photo shows Corporal Daniel Kenyon (R) leaning over an Iraqi detainee as another soldier pours water on him. (Reuters)

The pictures were revealed during a court martial of three British soldiers accused of ill-treating civilians in Iraq.

The military court continues Wednesday -- and is expected to run for three to four weeks -- with a legal expert explaining how he informed troops there about prisoners’ rights, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, who also testified at the court in Osnabrueck, western Germany, on the first day of the court martial Tuesday, January 18, has been called as a prosecution witness to help establish that the soldiers were aware their conduct was wrong.

“In my opinion there was a general lack of understanding about the legal requirements of occupation,” Mercer told the seven-member board of officers acting as a jury.

The three Royal Fusiliers, Corporal Daniel Kenyon and Lance Corporals Darren Larkin and Mark Cooley, face a total of nine charges ranging from assault to prejudicing good military order.

The three accused were part of a unit of soldiers sent out armed with poles and a few rifles under orders to capture the looters, make them return any stolen goods and “work them hard,” according to their commanding officer.

The alleged acts took place on or around May 15, 2003 at a sprawling depot known as the “bread basket” near Basra, southern Iraq, which was being used as a storage point for humanitarian aid but was regularly targeted by looters.

Some 22 photographs, released to the media by Judge Advocate Michael Hunter who is leading the court martial, were taken by five soldiers as souvenirs.

They depict civilians being forced to simulate acts of oral and anal sex, show one man tied to the forks of a forklift truck driven by a soldier, and the accused pretending to punch and kick an Iraqi.

Described by the leading prosecutor in the court martial Lieutenant Colonel Nick Clapham as “shocking and appalling”, the photos came to light when a woman working at a photo shop in Britain alerted police after seeing them on a roll of film put in for developing by a fourth Fusilier.

Clapham said the incident fell largely in line with military law and contravened the 4th Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners.

Larkin, 30, has pleaded guilty to battery for assaulting one Iraqi but denied a separate charge of disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind. The three have pleaded not guilty to all the other charges.

They face up to two years in prison on each charge and a dishonorable discharge from the army, or possible demotion, if found guilty.

“Opening the Wounds”

A third photo shows Lance corporal Darren Larkin standing on an Iraqi prisoner and Kenyon taking a photograph in the rear. (Reuters)

The strong condemnation from the head of the British Army General Sir Mike Jackson failed to soothe the angry press and the opposition parties.

Sir Menzies Campbell, a spokesman for  Britain's second largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, said the photos are a grim reminder of Abu Gharib scandal.

“These pictures will inevitably open all wounds and be part of drawing parallels with Abu Ghraib,” he told the British television.

The Financial Times said the photos threaten to re-ignite the controversy over  Iraq, potentially antagonizing some core Labour voters less than four months before an expected election.

Some newspapers said the case could put Britain's 9,000 troops in southern Iraq at risk by fuelling anger as the country prepares to hold elections on January 30, Reuters added.

Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, insisted that only a “small number” of the 65,000 servicemen and women who had served in  Iraq were alleged to have been involved in such incidents.

The trial is the latest in a series of hearings against US and British soldiers after photographs of abuse by US troops at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail emerged last year, sparking worldwide outrage.

US military jury Friday, January 14, found Army Reserve Spec. Charles A. Graner guilty of sexually abusing and torturing Iraqi prisoners in a scandal that triggered anti-American fury worldwide and blemished the US army’s reputation.