Webcast News Service, May 14, 2004

London's Daily Mirror newspaper has fired its editor and apologized for publishing fake photos of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British forces.

The news on Friday came one day after British defense minister Adam Ingram said an inquiry by military police found a truck seen in the Mirror's photos "was never in Iraq."

The newspaper said that the photos had been published in "good faith," but said that there is now "sufficient evidence to suggest that these pictures are fakes and that the Daily Mirror has been the subject of a calculated and malicious hoax."

Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan had staunchly defended the photos, which caused an uproar when they were published on May 1. The government said Thursday that it had concluded the pictures were fakes. The newspaper said it would be "inappropriate" for Morgan to continue as editor.

Earlier on Friday, Morgan defiantly said he would not resign, insisting the photos "accurately illustrated the reality about the appalling conduct of some British troops." Morgan had been a staunch opponent of the war with Iraq.

The Queen's Lancashire Regiment, the army unit implicated in the fake photos, showed reporters a replica of the rifle depicted in the Daily Mirror pictures and pointed out differences with the weapon its members carried during a six-month tour in Iraq last year. It also displayed a truck of the type that appeared in the photos and compared it with the trucks used in Iraq.

Brig. Geoff Sheldon, commander of the regiment, said the regiment's soldiers detained 448 Iraqis during their time in the country and received complaints about only one incident, the death of an Iraqi hotel clerk. He said that was "a terrible event that I bitterly and deeply regret," and that it was under investigation.