Baghdad prisoners ‘found tortured’

US and Iraqi forces fighting insurgents near the Syrian border ran into fierce resistance yesterday with troops encountering dozens of explosive booby traps and killing at least 30 insurgents, the military said.

Also yesterday, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari confirmed that more than 173 Interior Ministry prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by the new government’s security forces.

Three US Marines have died in combat while trying to clear the town of Obeidi since Monday. At least 80 insurgents have been killed in the same period, mostly in air strikes, the military statement said.

“Iraqi and coalition forces continue to clear the city house by house, occasionally encountering buildings that are rigged with explosives and triggered to detonate upon entering the building,” the statement said. “Numerous weapons caches have also been seized, including several that contained suicide vests and bombmaking material.”

The attack on Obeidi was the latest stage of an offensive to clear al-Qaida-led insurgents from a string of towns and cities in the Euphrates River valley near the Syrian border and seal off a major route for foreign fighters sneaking into Iraq.

The military said: “Several detainees were captured trying to sneak out of the area by crawling among a flock of sheep.”

Earlier this month, US and Iraqi forces overran two other towns in the area, Husaybah and Karabilah. Unlike previous sweeps in the area, the Americans and their Iraqi allies plan to establish a long-term presence to keep insurgents from returning.

US officials have said the Euphrates Valley campaign is also aimed at encouraging Sunni Arabs there to vote in the December 15 parliamentary elections without fear of insurgent reprisals. The Bush administration hopes a successful election with strong Sunni Arab participation will encourage many in that community to abandon the insurgency.

Meanwhile, Mr Al-Jaafari’s comments on the torture came a day after an Interior Ministry official said an investigation will be opened into allegations that its officers tortured suspects detained in connection with Iraq’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,” he said.

Maj Gen Hussein Kamal, the Interior Ministry’s undersecretary for security, said the detention centre was in Baghdad.

Late Sunday, US troops surrounded and took control of an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, apparently in connection with repeated allegations that Iraq security forces were illegally detaining and torturing people suspected of taking part in the insurgency.

In attacks aimed at Iraqi police yesterday, insurgents opened fire on a police patrol in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, killing four, while a roadside bomb a few miles away killed two more police officers, Col Shirzad Mursi said. The son of an Iraqi contractor was also killed, he added.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded while a group of police gathered for a meeting, police Capt Haider Ibrahim said. Four people were killed, including two officers, and seven people were wounded, he said.