The final moments of an Iraqi teenager who was allegedly forced by British soldiers to wade into a canal where he drowned were described to a court martial yesterday.
Ahmed Jabar Karheem, 15, who was detained with a group of suspected looters, disappeared in the Shatt al-Basra canal in May 2003 after British soldiers ordered him and the others to get into the water, the court heard.
Giving evidence at a court martial in Colchester,witness Aiad Salim Hanon described how Karheem bobbed in the water before he vanished. "Once we were in the river he just raised his hand and then he was under the water and then he raised his hands again."
Raising both arms in court to demonstrate, Mr Hanon, 26, said: "He stretched out his hand and after that I did not see him."
Four British soldiers are charged with manslaughter in a trial which focuses attention on a period when British forces were struggling to restore order in Basra after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Lance Corporal James Cooke, 22, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, 24, and Guardsman Martin McGing, 22, of the Irish Guards along with the commander of their unit, Colour Sergeant Carle Selman, 39, then of the Coldstream Guards, all deny the charge.
The Iraqi witness, who has been flown from Basra to give evidence, told the court that he was with Karheem and two others who planned to ransack a garage and sell the proceeds.
Roused by shouts from passersby that "the British are coming", the would-be looters fled the garage only to be caught by soldiers.
Mr Hanon said he knew that looting was wrong but he was driven to steal to survive the hardships of war.
"There was bombing from Bush at that time," he said. "There was a curfew [and] we could not work. It was very bad. It was a catastrophe. We were very hungry." He told the court that he earned the equivalent of 10p-15p a day from theft.
Mr Hanon, who claims to have been beaten by the soldiers who allegedly forced Karheem into the water, admitted that he had been told he could receive compensation if he complained about his treatment by British forces.
Describing his capture, he said: "When the British soldier first caught me, he hit me in the eye. He hit me once and I fell on the floor, and then he dragged me. They said 'Ali Baba' [which] means that you steal."
The witness said one of the soldiers might have helped the struggling Iraqi boy but was pulled back by other soldiers.
He said: "One of the soldiers took off his clothes, he wanted to jump in to the water but the others did not let him. I saw him with my own eyes taking off his clothes. I saw him wanting to jump but they did not let him. They said 'come on' and pushed him to the armoured vehicle." The hearing continues.