TERRITORIAL Army soldiers from Kidderminster who spent six months in Iraq have dismissed shocking photographs of British soldiers apparently abusing Iraqi prisoners - saying they did not see any evidence of such abuse and would be surprised if the pictures were real.

Lieutenant Martin Watson said the circulation of such pictures threatened to endanger the lives of soldiers going about their daily work and to tarnish the reputation of the many soldiers who were trying to help the Iraqis.

Twenty-one-year-old Private Ken Laga echoed his views, saying, if anything, Iraqi detainees were treated better than British soldiers.

Lieutenant Watson, who has been in the TA for 10 years, said: "I can only tell you what I saw and I saw nothing like that. If anything, the British troops are giving the Iraqis food and water and, in my opinion, standards of living over there have gone through the roof."

Of the photographs published in national newspapers, he added: "I wasn't there at the time but I can only say I would be very surprised if they were real.

"Fake or real, whoever has done it (leaked the photos) has put people's lives at risk, because the rest of the Arab world will see them. There is a lot of good work being done out there."

Meanwhile, Pte Laga added: "I didn't see any violence against prisoners or detainees - they got treated better than us.

"They weren't suppose to get anything other than food and water but one of them had a Gameboy and DVD player - they even made sure the DVDs had Arabic subtitles."

He added: "I was living in a tent for two-and-a-half months and then we got a little caravan."

He had said earlier: "I think people have got to respect the job that people out there are doing because it's not easy."