US: The US military will close Abu Ghraib prison, probably within three months, and transfer some 4,500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq, a military spokesman said yesterday.
The prison in western Baghdad was a torture centre under Saddam Hussein before photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqis there in 2003 gave it a new notoriety and made it a touchstone for Arab and Muslim rage over the US occupation.
"We will transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once construction is completed there," Lieut Col Keir-Kevin Curry said.
"No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to accomplish this within the next two to three months," said Lieu Col Curry, spokesman for US detention operations in Iraq.
Camp Cropper is a detention facility in the US military headquarters base at Baghdad airport, not far from Abu Ghraib.
It currently houses only 127 "high-value" detainees, among them Saddam himself.
US military officials say a purpose-built prison at Camp Cropper will provide better conditions for Iraqis detained on suspicion of insurgent activity. The buildings at Abu Ghraib, including the original brick-built jail and surrounding tented camp that has sprung up under US control, will be handed over to the Iraqi government.
At present, US forces are holding 14,589 people in four jails in Iraq. More than half are at Camp Bucca, in the south.
The conviction of several low-ranking US soldiers for abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 - secured after photographs taken by the soldiers emerged in public - failed to quiet anger among many Iraqis at the treatment of detainees. Thousands of people are held on suspicion of guerrilla activity for many months. The UN and Iraqi ministers have complained that the system is an abuse of human rights.
The US military cites its powers under a UN Security Council resolution to provide security in Iraq and says its facilities and procedures meet international standards.
Meanwhile, three bombs in Baghdad, one near a Sunni mosque, killed 11 people yesterday.
Three bodies with gunshot wounds were found dumped west of Baghdad, often a feature of sectarian killings. Sunni families accused police of involvement in the deaths of 18 men found garrotted in Baghdad a day earlier and the US military said dozens of security guards were "kidnapped" by men in Iraqi uniform. Some Iraqi officials say they were arrested.
The country's president, Jalal Talabani, will convene Iraq's first parliament on March 19th, a week later than he had announced to give political parties more time to agree on key posts, including the assembly's speaker.
q Iraq executed 13 insurgents yesterday after they confessed to taking part in "crimes against Iraqis" in northern Iraq, state television said.
- (Reuters)