Undercover British troops were held at militia house in Basra

British troops who stormed a Basra jail with armoured carriers to rescue two commandos discovered that the pair had already been handed over to local militia, the Ministry of Defence said today.

Officers searched the jail in the southern Iraqi city from "top to bottom" before forcing guards to disclose the whereabouts of the men at gunpoint.

The two soldiers, who had been working undercover, were traced to a nearby house from which they were rescued in a follow-up operation.

They were said to be safe and well today but yesterday's dramatic scenes of mob violence in a city once considered to be among the more peaceful in Iraq have raised serious questions over the deterioration of relations between British forces and the local police.

MOD officials today denied reports from the Iraqi ministry that that 150 prisoners escaped during the dramatic raid on the prison which involved ten Warrior armoured vehicles and helicopter back-up.

Brigadier John Lorimer, commanding officer of the 12th Mechanised Brigade in Basra, said: "I became more concerned about the safety of the two soldiers after we received information that they had been handed over to militia elements. As a result, I took the difficult decision to order entry to the police station.

"By taking this action, we were able to confirm that the soldiers were no longer being held by the Iraqi police. An operation was then mounted to rescue them from a house in Basra.

"We will be following up with the authorities in Basra why the soldiers were not immediately handed over to the multinational forces as Iraqi law says that they should have been."

"Under the law that stands, these two British officers should have been handed back to the military authorities but in the course of the day we became increasingly worried that those in there to negotiate were having no success in getting them out."

Asked if the undercover soldiers were being held by extremists in a local house, Mr Reid replied: "They were being held by people who were not police, let me stop at that. But you would not be far wrong to draw the deduction that you did - but let�s leave those details to later."

The Defence Secretary said that the events did not alter the Government's policy of keeping British forces in Iraq

Basra riot pictures