The US military, embroiled in a scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners, is investigating as homicides the deaths of eight more detainees held by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon said last night.
The Justice Department also said it had opened its first criminal investigation into a civilian contractor in Iraq over possible mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, but declined to give details about the nature of the suspected wrongdoing.
A senior military official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. Army has investigated 32 deaths of prisoners in Iraq and another five deaths of prisoners in Afghanistan since August 2002.
The military official said eight prisoner deaths under investigation have been "classified by medical authorities as homicides, which involve suspected assaults of detainees either before or during interrogation sessions that may have led to the detainees' death."
The eight new cases are in addition to two deaths previously investigated by the Army and declared homicides.
Treatment of prisoners held by US forces has come under scrutiny amid ongoing revelations about the physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.