Abused Iraqis discovered

173 inmates locked in Baghdad bunker Many showed signs of hunger, beatings

BAGHDAD— Iraq is investigating allegations of abuse after more than 170 prisoners were found locked in an Interior Ministry bunker in Baghdad, many of them beaten and malnourished and some apparently tortured. The detainees were discovered Sunday night during a raid by U. S. troops who were searching for a missing teenage boy. They were found in an underground cell near an Interior Ministry compound in Jadriya, a central Baghdad neighbourhood, and many of them showed signs of severe hunger and beatings, Iraqi officials and U. S. military sources said.

“I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished,” Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari told reporters.

“ There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture,” he said.

Earlier a deputy interior minister put the number of prisoners at 161 and said he was stunned by their treatment.

“ I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralyzed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies,” said Hussein Kamal.

“This is totally unacceptable treatment and it is denounced by the minister and everyone in Iraq,” he told Reuters.

In Washington, U. S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called the allegations of abuse “ troubling.” The United States, some of whose forces have been guilty of abusing Iraqi detainees, wants Iraq to punish its personnel if the accusations proved true, he added. Kamal said the detainees had all originally been detained with arrest warrants but didn’t say when. They had now been moved to another facility and were receiving medical help.

It was not clear why they had been arrested in the first place. Most detainees are suspected of supporting the Sunni Arab insurgency against the Shiite- and Kurdish- led government.

In other developments, U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through most of an insurgent stronghold near the Syrian border yesterday, encountering pockets of fierce resistance, destroying five unexploded car bombs and killing at least 30 guerrilla fighters, the U. S. command reported.

Three U. S. Marines died during the last two days of the operation to clear the town of Obeidi, a military statement said. More than 80 insurgents have been killed, mostly in air strikes, in the same period, it said.

Separately, three U.S. Army soldiers were killed yesterday in a roadside bombing near Baghdad, the U. S. command said.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded while police gathered for a meeting, police Capt. Haider Ibrahim said. Two officers were killed and seven people were injured, including two children.