THE British military unit "assisting with inquiries" over video footage of UK soldiers beating Iraqi civilians was last night named as the 1st Battalion Light Infantry.

"Investigations are on-going to identify all personnel involved in the video," said a Ministry of Defence spokes-man.

However, it is still unclear whether any or all of the soldiers shown in the footage were from the unit.

Royal Military Police are understood to be facing difficulties identifying the unit or units to which the group captured on film belonged.

But the fact they are talking to the 1st Battalion Light Infantry (1 LI) suggests that the abuse happened during the deployment of 20 Armoured Brigade. The brigade, based in Paderborn, Germany, was in southern Iraq until April 2004.

As well as 1 LI, it included the 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Wales, the Queen's Royal Hussars and 26 Royal Artillery.

Yesterday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani condemned the alleged abuse as "unjustified".

However, his spokesmansaid: "The good thing is that the British authorities condemned it and are investigating it."

The video was first reported by the News of the World on Sunday. The paper said an unidentified whistleblower provided the tape that had been filmed in southern Iraq by a corporal two years ago. It did not name the soldier or the unit involved, but an unidentified man was later detained by military police.

The video, aired widely on British and Arab television, shows soldiers dragging Iraqi protestors behind a wall, beating them with batons and kicking them.

The English-language Bahrain Tribune said it could not have been shown at a worse time, after the furore over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

"The illusion of the British being a friendly force is no longer there," it said. "The grainy video has exposed the deep-seated animosity they too have for the Iraqis."

Popular Arab television channel Al Jazeera called the mistreatment "savagery".

* 1 LI is one of the most operationally experienced in the British Army and, in the past three years, it has taken part in three major operational deployments in Iraq.