UK Ministry of Defense statement on WikiLeaks

[News_Editor]

UK Ministry of Defense statement on WikiLeaks

2010-10-23 20:03:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

LONDON (BNO NEWS) -- Britain's Ministry of Defence on Saturday released the following statement, hours after whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks published some 400,000 secret U.S. documents about the war in Iraq.

"We condemn any un-authorized release of classified material. This can put the lives of UK service personnel and those of our allies at risk and make the job of Armed Forces in all theaters of operation more difficult and more dangerous. It would be inappropriate to speculate on the specific detail of these documents without further investigation while the Iraq Inquiry is ongoing.

"There is no place for mistreatment of detainees and we investigate any allegation made against our troops. The protection of civilians is always at the core of what UK forces do in any operational theater and any civilian casualty is, of course, a matter of deep regret and we take any incidents extremely seriously."

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-10-23