US to replace senior commander in Iraq

1.00pm - By ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Washington

The fall-out from the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib finally reached the Pentagon yesterday when it was announced that the military commander in charge of Iraq was being shifted while the officer who had been in charge of the jail was being suspended.

Officials said that Lt General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, will be replaced by General George Casey, the Army's vice chief-of-staff, after spending more than 12 months there.

Brig General Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, who ran the notorious prison, has been suspended from her command.

Both the White House and the Pentagon said that Mr Sanchez's replacement was in no way linked to the prison scandal and that his superiors were impressed with the job he had done in Iraq.

President Bush said the officer had done a "fabulous job".

He added: "His service has been exemplary."

But regardless of whether or not Mr Sanchez and Ms Karpinski were personally responsible for the abuse scandal - Ms Karpinski was strongly criticised by an army investigation - both have become symbolic of inadequate supervision at the prison, west of Baghdad.

Reports suggest it had been planned for several months that Mr Sanchez, a three-star general, would likely be promoted and given charge of US Southern Command, a Miami-based position that oversees military operations and relationships in Latin America.

One report said that within just the last few days something had happened to derail that plan and that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was now planning to send his senior military assistant, Lt General Bantz Craddock, to do that job.

John Pike, director of the military think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said the shift of Mr Sanchez might be a form of "office politics".

But he added: "He has done his year in Iraq. We are not asking other soldiers to do more than a year in Iraq. Why should he have to do more?"

Ms Karpinski, who has returned to the US, has not been charged with any offence. Technically she could be reinstated because she has been suspended rather than relieved of her command.

The outcry over the prison abuse scandal is so great, however, that such a move is unlikely.

"I don't know what the grounds are," Ms Karpinski said on the MSNBC television channel.

"I know that I've been suspended. When I see it in writing, there will be an explanation for it. And what that means is I'm suspended from my position as the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, and they assign me to another position until whatever the reason is, whatever the basis is, is cleared."

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq