BAGHDAD, July 13 (UPI) -- U.S. investigators are probing allegations of torture at an Iraqi-run juvenile prison in western Baghdad, an official said.
Officials found evidence this year that Sunni children had been killed by their Shiite captors, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Sunday.
"The security detail came in literally as they were cleaning the blood from the floor -- they had just killed two Sunni kids," said Lt. Col. Craig J. Simper, a Judge Advocate General Corps officer from the 419th Fighter Wing, based in Utah, who helped arrange the inspection.
"The explanation was that these guys were trying to escape, but our investigation concluded that they were actually scheduled for release," he said.
Juvenile detention centers are supposed to offer academic and vocational training, but Simper described "a prison in the very worst sense ... it was worse than the adult prisons."
Although a government facility, Simper said the Tobchi youth detention center was run by members of the Mahdi Army, a militia under the command of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
"We found lots of evidence of torture, of physical and sexual abuse, just deplorable conditions," he said. "The rats were the size of Chihuahuas and the juveniles were being housed 50 to a cell."
