Two killed in Abu Ghraib

US MILITARY police shot and killed two detainees and wounded five others in an effort to stop a massive brawl that broke out yesterday at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison facility west of the Iraqi capital.

Troubles began when several detainees attacked another inmate with rocks and tent poles in a fight that quickly escalated, drawing in 200 inmates at a tented detention camp within the sprawling prison compound, said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, the US military's spokesman for detention operations in Iraq.

The military decided to use lethal force because one detainee was at risk of being killed by fellow inmates, he said.