US soldiers abused Iraqi child, claims detainee

A young Iraqi girl was stripped and beaten at a US military prison in Baghdad while her brother heard her scream from another cell, it was reported tonight

Suhaib al-Baz, 24, a cameraman for the Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera, said he saw the abuse while he was being held at Abu Ghraib prison.

Earlier, al-Baz had told Associated Press that he had been stripped, beaten, spat upon and deprived of sleep during his 74-day stint in US army custody.

During that time, he told the AP, soldiers took “torture shots” with their personal cameras. In one case, al-Baz said he saw a soldier’s computer screen emblazoned with a backdrop picture of a hooded, handcuffed prisoner being attacked by a dog.

Al-Baz said he saw a 12- or 13-year-old Iraqi girl brought into the prison.

Late at night, he said, she was brought in front of his and other prison cells, naked and screaming.

Her brother, held in an upper cell, heard her scream and call out for his help, said al-Baz.

On another occasion, al-Baz said, he saw a 15-year-old Iraqi boy, who was ill, being forced to hold two heavy cans of water and run up and down a corridor.

If the boy stopped, he was beaten with a stick by an American soldier, al-Baz said.

“He collapsed from exhaustion, so they stripped him and poured cold water over him,” al-Baz said.

A naked, hooded man was brought into the area and placed face to face with the boy. When the man’s hood was removed, the boy was shocked to see his father and collapsed, al-Baz said.

The American soldiers “then forced his father to wear a bra and a pair of knickers” and laughed, al-Baz said.

Al-Baz had been arrested by US forces in Tikrit, Iraq, in early November 2003 while covering clashes between insurgents.