BAGHDAD, April 24 (UPI) -- U.S. and Iraqi inspectors have uncovered abuse of prisoners at six Iraqi detention centers visited between November 2005 and February 2006, it was reported.
After U.S. soldiers found 173 incarcerated men, some showing signs of torture, in a secret bunker in Baghdad last November, the soldiers removed the men to spare them from further abuse. Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace said at the time U.S. military personnel have "the responsibility ... to intervene to stop it" when they observe abuse, but U.S. troops have not removed all the abused detainees seen during recent inspections, The Washington Post reported.
Since the November discovery, joint U.S.-Iraqi inspections of at least six detention centers -- most of them run by Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated Interior Ministry -- found abuse at all six centers, an Iraqi official and a U.S. official said.
U.S. authorities confirmed signs of severe abuse were observed at two centers, the Post said, but U.S. troops have not removed all of the detainees. U.S. and Iraqi officials said a handful of the most severely abused detainees at one site were removed for medical treatment and prisoners were removed from two other centers to relieve overcrowding, but the rest were left in place.
