Thousands of American troops will be assigned to Iraqi police units to monitor their work and rein in those who abuse prisoners, according to United States military officials in Baghdad.
The decision was made following a series of scandals involving Iraqi interior ministry forces including the discovery, last month, of dozens of emaciated and tortured inmates during a raid on a secret prison with almost 170 prisoners. American officials, who fear the influence of militias in the police force, have since found evidence of maltreatment in two other Baghdad prisons and another in Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq.
At present about 40 American soldiers are attached to each of seven of the nine special Iraqi police brigades. Under a plan, expected to be announced in Washington in the coming weeks, all the units will get several hundred advisers each.
"What we're trying to look for is that moderation," a senior official told the Los Angeles Times, "that you can't just go and attack that neighbourhood because it's primarily a different sect or a different race or a group of foreigners ... and just arrest them because they're different and put them in secret facilities and hold them for undetermined periods of time." US troops have themselves abused prisoners, most notoriously at Abu Ghraib prison, where National Guards routinely humiliated and degraded those under their jurisdiction.
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http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=260242&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news
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