(Original copy) WHITE masks clamped to their faces to protect them from the dust, the two military police officers pick through the rubble of the tiny room in the police station in the town of Majar Al Kabir where six of their colleagues died at the hands of an angry Iraqi mob. It is a painstaking task, picking bits of plaster from the walls, looking for bullet marks, bagging up whatever they can salvage, anything which could provide a clue to who killed their colleagues. A difficult job, not just because of the painful knowledge of what happened in that room, but also because those who killed the British soldiers set fire to the room afterwards. The room is dark, illuminated only by a hole, roughly six inches across, knocked through the outside wall at about head height, and by the light which filters through the doorway from the courtyard outside. The floor is covered with charred remains of paper files, brickwork, debris. A blackened desk stands at the far end of the room underneath the hole in the wall, but other than that there is no furniture left. Another gap now opens into the next door room, but that is partly blocked by a pile of shattered yellow brickwork and a twisted metal sheet. The military police officers have taken off their red berets and put them to one side as they sift through what is left in the room. Supervising the work is Major Kevin Bellwater, flown out specially for this job from the army's Special Investigations Branch in the UK. It is more than two weeks since the men died, two weeks in which dozens of people have traipsed through the room and interfered with what he might have regarded as evidence. He admits the task facing him is not an easy one. "It is very difficult given the situation," he says. "There is rubble on the floor and paper everywhere. We are trying to look at the bullet marks." He says there is no sign of the bullets which could help identify the weapons which were used to kill the soldiers. Behind him, inside the room, the two other men, red MP bands on their sleeves, scrape away at the plaster wall, placing samples into tubes which they bag up and drop into a large black plastic box outside the door of the room. They have video and stills cameras with them to record the scene. The man commanding the British forces in the town, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Castle, says he believes he knows who was responsible for the killings. Finding enough proof to make charges stick, however, is another matter, which is why Major Bellwater has been brought in. Whatever he has found at the scene will be taken back to the UK for analysis in the hope that it might throw up an unexpected clue. The police station is not far from the northern edge of the town, down a side street on the left hand side of the road. A low flat roofed ochre building, it sits a few yards along from a row of small shops. Standing guard at the entrance is another military police officer, easily identifiable by his red cap and the MP band on his arm. Inside, the wall facing the door is pockmarked with bullet holes. Further in, past the dingy cell block, the rooms all lead off the central courtyard. Most of them are bare, the windows barred but the glass broken. A couple of panes have survived, but they are cracked and punctured with bullet holes. The white and black speckled floor tiles are covered in dust and dirt. Outside the windows the grass is black and charred from burning. The smell of the fire is still hanging in the air. On the road outside, people walk past without a second glance at the Warrior armoured vehicles which are parked at the entrance to the street and outside the police station itself, their 30mm cannon enough to deter the most determined of crowds, the British determined not to risk a repeat of what happened on the day the police officers were killed. Then, a crowd angered by what they regarded as heavy handed weapons searches, turned on the men who had only gone to the town to try to train up a local police force. They were chased into the police station, and killed in this small room off the large central courtyard with its trees and welcome shade. Their weapons were taken off them - some reports say before they were killed, some after - and have still not been recovered. The local civic leaders have been warned by the British that the people responsible must be caught and that the weapons must be recovered. The order has gone out to the troops that they are to dominate the town to leave those responsible for the deaths of the police officers in no doubt about who is in charge. The civic leaders have made it clear that they are not happy with such an approach, but for the moment that is what is happening. But if there is tension, today it is bubbling away beneath the surface. Despite the heavy military presence, there is little sign of friction between the people of the town and the troops. The road from Al Amarah to the north is guarded by two militia men who wave the soldiers through. Inside the town, the streets are bustling, private cars and taxis vying with lorries and tractors and donkey carts for space on the roads. The shops and market stalls are doing a brisk trade and the streets in the centre are thronged with people. The soldiers standing guard say that everyone is trying to get on with their lives and come to terms with what happened such a short time ago. Lieutenant Antonio Calunniato, from the Kings Regiment, is standing outside the police station. His Warrior company, attached to the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, has been in the town since the day after the killings. He says the people of the town were as worried as the soldiers were angry. "People in the town seemed quite surprised by what had happened and I don't think they knew what our reaction would be," he says. "The soldiers feel comfortable now but on the day it was a big shock and there was a great deal of natural resentment about what had happened, but we have been professional about it and got on with it." For their part, the local people appear to be tolerating the presence of the soldiers. There is not quite the same feeling of welcome that is noticeable in other towns in the area. Some people do acknowledge the soldiers, but many appear indifferent. When a car with soldiers in drives down the main street, young men watch it levelly from doorways. There appears to be less of the waving and smiling that can be seen in towns such as Al Amarah, but whether that is because the local people are less receptive to the presence of the soldiers or the soldiers themselves are more nervous is harder to tell. For the KOSB, whose job it is to restore order in the town and establish some sort of stability, the big problem remains the gun culture. Neither side is comfortable with the other's position. The soldiers are having to adjust to the local custom of firing guns into the air in celebration, while the people of the town are trying to adjust to the idea of relinquishing some of their weaponry. And even if the gun problem can be cracked, the uneasy stand-off appears unlikely to be fully resolved unless those responsible for the deaths of the British police officers are handed over. In the meantime, the British are making efforts behind the scenes to restore relations with local leaders. Lt Col Castle visited the town yesterday, and the KOSB appear keen to offer help with local projects such as reopening of the town's sugar factory which could improve conditions in Majar and convince its inhabitants that they mean well. For their part, the people of the town have left the troops in no doubt of what they want. On the way out of Majar there is a large, flat, concrete sign, on which the face of Saddam Hussein would once have been painted. Now in his place is the face of a Muslim cleric, and underneath a message written in English, a clear message to the British. It reads: "Islam is our belief, peace and liberty and dignity are our symbols."

(Original news copy) A BRITISH military scenes of crime officer has been flown in to Iraq to search for evidence which might help bring to justice the killers of six military police officers killed in the town of Majar Al Kabir. British comanders in the town believe they now know who killed the six men, but one of the problems they have faced is finding the evidence to make charges stick. Yesterday Major Kevin Bellwater, from the army's Special Investigations Branch, arrived in Majar to examine the room where the bodies of the soldiers were discovered on 24 June. Accompanied by two military police officers, he conducted a thorough search of the room, which was extensively damaged by fire after the incident. The men took samples from the walls and photographed the scene, hoping that bullet marks on the wall might provide some clues as to what happened. But Major Bellwater admitted that the passage of time since the incident and the amount of interference which had gone on with the crime scene made their task more complicated. "It is very difficult given the situation," he says. "There is rubble on the floor and paper everywhere. We are trying to look at the bullet marks," he said. But he said there was no sign of the bullets which could help identify the weapons which were used to kill the soldiers. The evidence collected in evidence bags will now be sent back to the UK for forensic examination. The investigation was ordered by Lt Colone Mark Castle, the commanding officer of the Kings Own Scottish Borders, whose men are now responsible for Majar and the surrounding area. On Wednesday he said that he now believed that he knew who was responsible for the killings. However, British military sources suggested that the army was prepared to wait for the right moment before moving against the suspects, rather than risk allowing them to escape or failing to produce enough evidence to secure a conviction. "We'll only get one chance at it, so we need to get it right," one said.