In only 12 of 34 cases has anyone been punished for the confirmed or suspected killings of US-held detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a US human rights group reported today.

A US Army interrogator facing up to life behind bars for killing an Iraqi general by stuffing him head-first into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest will instead escape with a reprimand, a military jury ruled early today.

The US military plans to charge two intelligence soldiers over the suffocation death of an Iraqi general during an interrogation last autumn, according to an American newspaper report.