New abuse photo developments

2004-05-06 09:42

Washington - More photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused by their US jailers have turned up among a thousand digital pictures passed around among US military police who served at the Abu Ghraib prison, The Washington Post said on Thursday.

The pictures show similar acts of abuse and humiliation to those that have been seen around the world and touched off a major scandal that has led to investigations and expressions of disgust and disappointment by top US military and political leaders.

US President George W Bush went on Arabic television on Wednesday vowing to punish US troops behind the abuse but stopping short of apologising. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is to appear before a hastily arranged congressional hearing on Friday to answer questions on the scandal.

The Washington Post said the new images of prisoner abuse were among about a thousand digital photographs the US troops took of their experience in Iraq, including many tourist-like images of soldiers riding camels and standing before mosques.

The graphic images, taken by several digital cameras, loaded onto compact discs and passed around among military police who served at the now notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, include a soldier holding a leash tied around a naked prisoner writhing on the ground.

Naked, tied together

Another shows a group of three or four naked prisoners tied together on the ground outside their cells as US troops mill around them.

Many of the prisoners are wearing white identification bands on their wrists, said the daily, adding that it could not rule out the possibility some of the pictures were staged.

Other photographs include one of a naked prisoner wearing a black pointed hood handcuffed to the bars of his prison cell and another naked prisoner with a pair of women's panties over his head and face. He is tied to the metal bunk bed in such a way his back is arched.

There are also images of soldiers simulating sexually explicit acts with one another and shots of a cow being skinned and gutted and soldiers posing with its severed head. There are also dozens of pictures of a cat's severed head, the daily said.

Finally, the daily said there are pictures of wounded men and corpses, one of which shows a soldier smiling and giving the "thumbs-up sign," leaning over a grey, decomposing corpse.

- AFP