Paper publishes more abuse photos

MORE shocking pictures of Iraqi prisoners apparently being humiliated and abused by US soldiers were published by the Washington Post newspaper in the United States yesterday.

One image appears to show a soldier holding a leash tied around the neck of a naked man lying on the floor of an Iraqi prison.

It is just one of 1,000 digital pictures obtained by The Post which it claims were taken during last summer and winter.

The newspaper says the pictures were passed around military police who served at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and some of them are similar in content to those shown in the US media which shocked the world last week.

The newspaper reported that among the photographs are images of naked men, apparently prisoners, sprawled on top of each other with soldiers standing round; a naked hooded man handcuffed to a door; another naked man handcuffed to a bunk bed with a pair of women’s underwear over his face.

The pictures were reportedly seized by military investigators probing conditions at the prison.

Washington Post reporter Christian Davenport said he believed the pictures were authentic. The four images were found in a batch of photographs which also depict a wide range of other subjects including ordinary military life.

Mr Davenport said: “We believe that they are authentic. We have had family members of some of the soldiers pictured in the photos confirm that it is their relative.”

When asked what the likely response to the latest round of pictures would be, he added: “We have seen as they have gotten play in the Arab world there has been quite a strong reaction.

“These are very humiliating poses that these apparent Iraqi prisoners are in and there is quite a lot of shame that goes with that and they are quite humiliating.”