Report highlights US prisoner deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan

Thirty-nine prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since the autumn of 2001 and there have been 94 cases of proven or suspected abuse, the Army said in a broad new report giving a more precise and higher estimate of the scale of the abuse.

The Army inspector general’s report also gives new details about the alleged abuses, including evidence that troops conspired to make Iraqi prisoners jump off a bridge, that one interrogator hit a prisoner in the head during questioning and that a sergeant told subordinates to ”rough up” detainees.

But the Army report nevertheless concludes that there were no systemic problems that caused or contributed to the abuses.

All of the wrongdoing was committed by soldiers who violated Army rules and regulations, at times aided by commanders who either encouraged abuses or looked the other way, Inspector General Lt Gen Paul Mikolashek said yesterday.

Senate Democrats, pointing to deficiencies in training and inconsistencies in doctrine outlined in the Army report, immediately challenged that finding.

“It is difficult to believe there were not systemic problems with our detention and interrogation operations,” Michigan Senator Carl Levin, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said at a hastily called hearing.

The acting Army secretary and its top general said they took responsibility for the abuses while insisting that they were not sanctioned by Army leadership.

“These actions, while regrettable, are aberrations,” said Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee.