A probe investigating allegations made against Iraq war veterans will be shut down within months, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has announced.
MPs have branded the probe, which has spent £34m but led to no successful prosecutions, an "unmitigated failure".
The IHAT was set up in 2010 to probe allegations made by Iraqi civilians.
The decision to close the team comes after a public inquiry exposed the behaviour of a human rights lawyer in charge of many of the abuse allegation cases.
Phil Shiner, from the now-defunct law firm Public Interest Lawyers, was struck off for misconduct in February.
As a result, IHAT's caseload would be reduced from 3,000 to 20 cases by the summer, a Ministry of Defence statement said.
"Exposing his [Mr Shiner's] dishonesty means many more claims he made can now be thrown out and the beginning of the end for IHAT," said Sir Michael.
"This will be a relief for our soldiers who have had allegations hanging over them for too long. Now we are taking action to stop such abuse of our legal system from happening again."
Earlier on Friday, an MPs' committee called IHAT an "unstoppable self-perpetuating machine, deaf to the concerns of the armed forces" which must be shut down.
More than 3,500 allegations of abuse had been taken up by team despite many cases not having any credible evidence, said the Defence Committee report.
It blamed the MoD for empowering law firms to bring cases on "an industrial scale" which saw cases rocket from 165 into the thousands - with most generated by two firms, Public Interest Lawyers and Leigh Day.
"Those under investigation have suffered unacceptable stress, have had their lives put on hold, and their careers damaged," it added.
Conservative MP Johnny Mercer, a former army captain who chairs the committee, said the process had been "horrific" for those involved.
"Families torn apart, careers ended, and for what?" he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. "It should have been shut down a long time ago."
The Ministry of Defence had been "extremely slow off the mark", he said, and there were a lot of questions to be answered about how it had been allowed to continue for so long.
'Dubious evidence'
The committee report said there had been a "catalogue of serious failings" in the way IHAT handled its investigations.
Service personnel and veterans had been contacted unannounced and covert surveillance appeared to have been used on serving and retired members of the armed forces, it said.
The report added: "IHAT investigators have impersonated police officers in order to gain access to military establishments or threaten arrest. Investigations which had previously been closed down were re-opened on the back of dubious evidence."
It said the most telling failure of the unit was the fact there had not been a single prosecution against the UK military.
The unit has cost the UK taxpayer £34m so far, but had been predicted to reach nearly £60m had it remained active until 2019.
Iraq war allegations probe to end - BBC News