An Army private accused of sending reams of classified US documents to the WikiLeaks website was kept in tight pre-trial confinement partly because another prisoner had recently committed suicide, the former security chief at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, told a court today.

A top US military commander has ordered a new investigation into a firefight in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to claims of negligence by their senior commanders.

A nearly 700-page study released by the US Army found that “in the euphoria of early 2003,” US-based commanders prematurely believed their goals in Iraq had been reached and did not send enough troops to handle the occupation.

Iraq’s transitional prime minister called today for a speedy withdrawal of US troops and the top US commander in Iraq said he believed a “fairly substantial” pullout could begin next spring and summer.