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Iraqi PM: Detainees apparently tortured
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-16 01:06
More than 170 malnourished Iraqi detainees found at an Interior Ministry
detention center appear to have been tortured, the prime minister said Tuesday.
He said an investigation had been launched.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari talks
to journalists during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Nov.
15, 2005. [AP] |
The announcement came two days after U.S. troops surrounded and took control
of an Interior Ministry building in the Baghdad neighborhood where the detainees
were found, although the Iraqi leader didn't say whether American forces were
involved in discovering the center.
The international Red Cross said it needed more information about the alleged
abuse before commenting.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official also said Monday that an investigation
will be opened into allegations that ministry officers tortured suspects
detained in connection with the country's insurgency.
"I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry
prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they
were subjected to some kind of torture," Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told
reporters.
Al-Jaafari said the detainees were moved into a better location and "medical
care will be given to them."
Most insurgents are Sunni Arabs, who were dominant under Saddam Hussein's
regime but lost power after his ouster.
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