Prisoner beaten by Iraqi soldiers

BAGHDAD, April 22 (UPI) -- The beating of an Iraqi insurgent prisoner by Iraqi security forces has shed new light on a practice disagreed on by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Iraqi soldiers said they beat one of three prisoners while the two others were forced to watch, The New York Times reported Sunday. The prisoners fed U.S. forces information on fellow insurgents, safe houses, weapons storage locations and other information about militant groups.

"I prepared him for the Americans and let them take his confession," Iraqi Capt. Bassim Hassan said through an interpreter. "We know how to make them talk. We know their back streets. We beat them. I don't beat them that much, but enough so he feels the pain and it makes him desperate."

The beating was roundly condemned by U.S. forces, which said prisoner abuse is against the rules of the U.S. military as well as the Iraqi military. However, Hassan said Iraqi commanders tell them "to do what we have to do."

"If the Americans used this way, the way we use, nobody would shoot the Americans at all," he said. "But they are easy with them, and they have made it easy for the terrorists."

 Related Images
 Related Polls
 Related Trivia
 Celebrity Gossip

Iraqi, New, York, Times, Americans,
IRAQ, ABUSE, news conflict, world mideast iraq, World News,