U.S. military probes Afghan detainee abuse

Reuters
Monday June 25, 2007

The U.S. military in Afghanistan has began an investigation into a report that says U.S. and Afghan soldiers were involved in abusing a suspect, the military said.

The U.S. soldier in question has been temporarily removed from his post pending an investigation, it said in a statement.

Wolfgang Bauer, a correspondent with the German magazine Focus, reported this month that along with a magazine photographer he witnessed an incident by U.S. and Afghan soldiers he believed amounted to torture.

Focus reported that during a search of a village for Taliban fighters, a patrol apprehended a suspect in a house in Ghazni, southwest of Kabul.

When the suspect refused to talk, the magazine said, an Afghan platoon leader tied one end of a rope to the suspect's foot and the other to a vehicle and then threatened to drag the man unless he told the truth.

Focus reported that the platoon leader then had an American soldier start the motor. The magazine printed a picture of what it said was the prisoner tied to the vehicle, with a soldier standing nearby.

After idling for two minutes, the vehicle's motor was shut off. The man was not dragged, the magazine reported, and the suspect was set free.

The U.S. soldier, a "fighter against terrorism, is suddenly, according to international law, a criminal," Bauer wrote.

Additionally, the article said that family members of the suspect were threatened.

"U.S. military officials have initiated an investigation in response to an article," the U.S. military said.

"This alleged behavior goes against everything the U.S. military stands for and believes in," it said quoting Army Colonel Martin P. Schweitzer, a commander for foreign troops in the region of the incident.

The Afghan army has also initiated an investigation, the U.S. military said.

U.S. soldiers form the bulk of nearly 50,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. They are hunting Taliban and their al Qaeda allies and have arrested hundreds of militant suspects since the overthrow of the Taliban government in 2001.

Many former detainees have made allegations of mistreatment or torture while in detention and there have also been a number of unexplained deaths.