War in Iraq: US puts brakes onbody cavity searches

The Pentagon is implementing new restrictions on detainee interrogations, tying them more closely to the Geneva Conventions and has ordered limits on body cavity searches of prisoners.

"We'll leave far less up to the interrogator to decide what they can and cannot do," said Thomas Gandy, a senior Army intelligence official.

He acknowledged that previous Army doctrine on interrogation methods had not been specific enough.

Gandy said military dogs would never be used in interrogations.

Some Abu Ghraib photos showed United States personnel menacing detainees with dogs.

In a January 12 memo to US military commanders worldwide, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz wrote that the military should not perform "routine detainee body cavity exams or searches".

He said this invasive procedure "may conflict with the customs of some detainees."

Officials said the Army will create 35 special "internment/resettlement" units, with 3000 soldiers specializing in handling detainees by 2008.

No charges over killing

A United States Marine, captured on film killing a wounded Iraqi at point- blank range during November's assault on Fallujah, will not be formally charged because of the lack of evidence, CBS News reported. The November 13 shooting occurred during a search of a mosque in a widely broadcast incident.

The trooper raised his rifle and shot at an apparently unarmed, wounded and prone Iraqi. The insurgents were found to be unarmed, but investigators said the one the Marine thought he had seen moving could have been reaching for a weapon.

Court-martial threat

Up to 11 more British soldiers could face court martial over the fatal beating of an Iraqi civilian and other instances of abuse, The Times said.

Seven soldiers have been charged with murder and violent disorder and face court-martial over the death of an Iraqi in May 2003.