The UK's Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been fired because the photos he published of British soldiers abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners turned out to be a hoax.

"The Daily Mirror published in good faith photographs which it absolutely believed were genuine images of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner," the newspaper said. "However there is now sufficient evidence to suggest that these pictures are fakes and that the Daily Mirror has been the subject of a calculated and malicious hoax. The Daily Mirror therefore apologises unreservedly for publishing the pictures and deeply regrets the reputational damage done to the QLR and the army in Iraq."

Morgan remained defiant:

"All I want to say is we published the truth," he told the ITV News Channel. "We have revealed a can of worms. If the government chooses to ignore that, it is entirely a matter for them."