Three Navy SEALs charged with Iraqi prisoner abuse

11.00am

The US military has charged three more members of an elite Navy SEAL unit with abusing prisoners in Iraq, including a man who died last year after being beaten, the Navy said today.

The Naval Special Warfare Command, based in San Diego, California, which made the announcement, also reported earlier this month that four other members of the Sea-Air-Land (SEAL) commando unit would face military criminal charges.

The Navy did not identify the seven, but said charges against the four included aggravated assault with intent to cause death and serious bodily harm, assault with a dangerous weapon, maltreatment of detainees, obstruction of justice and failure to report abuse.

The sailors, part of a large contingent of US special operations troops in Iraq, were charged in a continuing probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service into alleged detainee abuse in Iraq from October 2003 to April 2004.

The Navy did not say how many counts were brought against each of the seven or how many detainees the SEALs were accused of abusing.

A spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego had said the case stemmed from an investigation begun after another Navy SEAL who served in Iraq but has now retired came forward with allegations of abuse by his former comrades.

Navy officials said some of the charges were connected to the case of an Iraqi prisoner who was captured in the field by SEALs in November 2003 and later died at the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Army investigators found that the detainee was struck in the head with the butt of a gun when taken into custody by the Navy commandos. The injured man was then brought to Abu Ghraib by the CIA and placed in a shower with a bag over his head, investigators found.

His death was attributed to a blood clot in his brain that likely stemmed from the blow from the gun butt.

The case has marked the first criminal charges against Navy personnel in a prisoner abuse scandal that erupted when pictures of US forces physically abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib surfaced in April.

Seven Army reservists, all military police soldiers, have been charged, and military investigators have recommended charges against dozens of others in the Army.

Criminal counts against the four SEALs charged earlier this month included aggravated assault, maltreatment of detainees, failure to report maltreatment of detainees, making false official statements to investigators, and solicitation to commit an offence.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq