US to close Abu Ghraib

THE US will close Abu Ghraib prison, probably within three months, and transfer some 4,500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq, a military spokesman said yesterday.

The prison in western Baghdad was a torture centre under Saddam Hussein before photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqis there in 2003 gave it a new notoriety and made it a touchstone for Arab and Muslim rage over the US occupation.

“We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there,” Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry said.