Outrage at murder of Iraqi prisoners by US personnel

TWO Iraqi prisoners were murdered by American citizens and 23 other deaths are being investigated in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States revealed last night, as the Bush administration tried to contain growing outrage over the abuse of Iraqi detainees.

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, said he was horrified by the images of prisoners being mistreated by US forces.

"The actions of the soldiers in those photographs are totally unacceptable and un-American," he said. "Any who engaged in such action let down their comrades who serve honourably and they let down their country."

Army officials said that the military had investigated the deaths of 25 prisoners held by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and determined that an army soldier and a CIA contractor murdered two prisoners. Most of the deaths occurred in Iraq.

An official said a soldier was convicted in the US military justice system for shooting dead an Iraqi who had thrown rocks at him. The soldier was reduced in rank to private and thrown out of the service but did not serve any time in jail.

The official said a private contractor who worked for the CIA was found to have committed the other homicide against a prisoner.

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, said only a "small number" of US troops had been involved in the abuse and vowed that wrongdoers would be brought to justice.

"I can assure you that no stone will be left unturned to make sure that justice is done and to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again," he said.

George Bush, the US president, who is currently on the campaign trail in Ohio, did not mention the abuse yesterday, but his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said Mr Bush was disgusted and outraged and had demanded those responsible be held accountable.

"The president has told the secretary of defence that he expects people to be held accountable, and that he wants, too, to know that this is not a systemic problem," Ms Rice said.

"In other words, quite apart from the specific cases of those particular photographs, Americans do not dehumanise other people. That is not why we’re in Iraq. We’re in Iraq to liberate a people, to help them," she added.

Six US soldiers have been reprimanded and six others face criminal charges in connection with abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, but Iraqi prisoners have complained of inhumane treatment by US troops at other centres as well.

The allegations first surfaced in January but were only made public last week.

Images of Iraqi prisoners stripped of their clothes and being humiliated and abused have badly damaged US prestige and credibility, especially in the Arab world.

Excerpts from a report on the abuse by Major General Antonio Taguba were likely to further stoke more fury.

"Between October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility, incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees," the report said.