MoD pays out £14m compensation to Iraqis over torture claims A spokesman said: "Over 120,000 British troops have served in Iraq and the vast majority have conducted themselves with the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. All allegations of abuse will always be investigated thoroughly. We will compensate victims of abuse where it is right to do so and seek to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. But campaigners are calling for a public inquiry into the UK's detention and interrogation practices in the five years following its invasion of Iraq in 2003. Lutz Oette, legal counsel at Redress, an NGO that supports torture victims, said: "The payments provide a long overdue measure of redress. However, for the victims, compensation without truth and accountability is a heavy price to pay. For justice to be done there is a need for a full independent inquiry to establish what happened and who is responsible. Looking at the number of claimants and scale of payments, there clearly seems to be a systemic problem. It is high time for this to be fully accounted for, first and foremost for the victims but also the British public, which has an obvious interest to know the truth behind the figures.