The US Army has charged four soldiers, three of them with manslaughter, over the drowning of an Iraqi prisoner, it has emerged.
The soldiers, on patrol near the city of Samarra 60 miles north of Baghdad on January 3rd, pushed two Iraqis off a bridge at nighttime into the Tigris River after picking up the men on a curfew violation, officials said. One Iraqi drowned, while the other managed to get himself out of the water.
The case follows revelations about ill-treatment of military prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba.
First Lt Jack Saville (24), and Sgt 1st Class Tracy Perkins (33), were charged on June 7th with involuntary manslaughter, assault, conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice. Lt Saville faces up to 26 years in prison and Sgt Perkins up to 26 1/2 years if convicted.
Two others were charged on Monday. Sgt Reggie Martinez (24), was charged with involuntary manslaughter and making a false official statement. Sgt Martinez faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Spec Terry Bowman (21), was charged with assault and making a false official statement. Spec Bowman, accused of pushing the Iraqi who survived the fall into the river, faces up to 5 1/2 years if convicted.
All four soldiers, who served in the 4th Infantry Division, will face the military version of a grand jury proceeding before a decision is made on courts-martial.
In a report on one of several investigations after the disclosure of abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, a senior general found major problems with US detainee operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A report by Lt Gen Paul Mikolashek, the Army's inspector general, criticized Army policies on prisoner operations as a throwback to the Cold War and designed to handle Soviet prisoners in a European war rather than the extremist Islamic guerrillas now being confronted, a senior Army official said.
The report, which has not been released, did not find systemic abuse of prisoners by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But Lt Gen Mikolashek found significant shortcomings in the training of jailers and interrogators, organization and detention procedures in the handling of prisoners, the official said. The report found those problems contributed to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the official said.
In another development involving prisoners in US military custody, lawyers representing nine prisoners at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay filed lawsuits in federal court in Washington arguing their detention was unlawful and unconstitutional and seeking their release.
Five cases covering nine prisoners were filed in US District Court four days after the US Supreme Court dealt a defeat to the Bush administration and ruled foreign terrorism suspects held at the base could use the US judicial system to challenge their confinement.