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More claims of abuse at Abu Ghraib
Notorious for torture under Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib prison is now widely seen as a hell-hole of abuse by the Americans.
Iraq's largest jail, outside Baghdad, is the focus of world attention and further shocking revelations of what went on within its walls could soon be on the way. One man who says he knows only too well what horrors were carried out behind closed doors at the prison is Iraqi journalist and former inmate Suhaib al-Baz.
Arrested six months ago while reporting on clashes between the coalition and Iraqi fighters, he says prison guards organised a daily competition to see who could take the most gruesome picture of the torture of detainees. "The winner's photo would be stuck on a wall and also put on their laptop computers as a screensaver," he said. Although his claims cannot be independently verified, the US military says it will investigate.
And there are more allegations of humiliation.
Hashim Lazim Mohsen says he and others were subject to enforced masturbation and physical abuse.
He says they were made to take part in the so-called "pyramid game," referring to detainees being forced to lie naked on top of one another.
"If we fell, we had to try again," he said.
"We remained like that for 30 minutes and they took pictures of us."
Adding to the photographs and testimonies, there are now revelations from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visited detention centres last year. It says the abuse of Iraqis, in some cases, was "tantamount to torture."
(EuroNews)
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