British human rights lawyer Phil Shiner, who heads the law firm, has long been pushing for investigations into the sheer volume of abuse during the Iraq War, and had been trying to get the British government to launch a serious inquiry.

This marks the first time in history the ICC has launched a probe of the United Kingdom. The British Attorney General denied the claims of abuse, and said it was "unlikely" that the probe would move beyond the preliminary stage.

A 250-page document was handed over to the ICC, comprising 85 particularly representative cases and more than 2,000 accusations of abuse documented over five years, said the two organizations.

Britain helped the US invade Iraq in 2003 based on unfounded allegations about weapons of mass destruction and committed war crimes against Iraqis especially in prisons of the Arab nation. There are numerous photos, leaked from inside jails, prove British army forces tortured Iraqis during the years of invasion of Iraq.

Unlike Britain, which has promised cooperation, the United States has a formal policy of insisting the ICC can't do anything to US troops or any member of the US government under any circumstances.

In 2002 the US passed the "American Service-Members' Protection Act," which authorizes any action, up to and including a military invasion of the Netherlands, to free any officials detained by the ICC.

NTJ/NJF