Eight Iraqis are to be tried over the killings of six British military police officers in a remote town in Iraq in 2003, the Ministry of Defence said today.
The six officers, members of a unit known as the Red Caps, died in June 2003 in Majjar when angry residents stormed a police station.
Britain joined a US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said an Iraqi judge had indicated there was enough evidence to put on trial eight suspects currently in custody in Iraq.
"The UK government is committed to seeing the killers of the six Royal Military Police personnel brought to justice," the ministry said in a statement.
"We are assisting the Iraqi government in every way possible to secure convictions, including access to UK investigative materials and expertise."
The British military said at the time that the deaths stemmed from a misunderstanding between troops and residents over weapons searches.
The incident caused an outcry in Britain after reports that the men had been killed in cold blood by a mob rather than in combat.
Families of the six were critical of the British government for passing the investigation over to the Iraqi authorities, and argued that negligence by army personnel led to their deaths.
An inquest into the killings in March 2006 found the men had poor communications equipment and inadequate ammunition. But the coroner ruled the deaths could not have been avoided.
Reg Keys, whose son Corporal Thomas Keys was killed in the attack, said he was hopeful convictions could be secured within the next few months.
But he was critical of the time it had taken to bring the alleged killers to justice.
"The bodies were looted, my son's watch was taken," he told Sky News.
"We've known now for nearly seven years ... that these alleged killers walked the streets wearing the trophies from the six Red Caps."
Reuters