"The work of this Inquiry has established beyond doubt that all the most serious allegations made against British soldiers involved in what has become known as the Battle of Danny Boy and its aftermath … have been found to be wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility," Sir Thayne Forbes, the chairman of the Al Sweady inquiry said in a statement released on the Inquiry's website.
However, Forbes noted that the inquiry had revealed that the conduct of several individual British soldiers "fell below the high standards expected of the British Army" and that "certain aspects of the way in which the 9 detainees were treated by the British military did amount to ill-treatment."
The Al Sweady Inquiry was launched in November 2009 by then British Minister of State for the Armed Forces Bob Ainsworth after "a number of Iraqi Nationals" applied to the UK Administrative Court. The Iraqis suggested that acts of violence took place at a British Camp named Abu Naji on May 14 and 15, 2004 and at the temporary detention facility at Shaibah Logistics Base between May, 14 and September 23, 2004.
According to the BBC, the inquiry cost British taxpayers a total of 31 million pounds (about $49 million).
