Coalition Is Investigating Allegations of Prisoner Abuse in Iraq

The American commander of forces in Iraq announced an investigation Friday into reports of prisoner abuse at one of the U.S.-led coalition’s detention facilities.

Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez did not specify what had triggered the inquiry, saying that disclosing details could jeopardize the investigation.

“The coalition is committed to treating all persons under its control with dignity, respect and humanity,” Sanchez said.

Since the end of the war, American and coalition troops have detained thousands of Iraqis who they say are suspects in the guerrilla campaign against occupation forces. The detentions have outraged many Iraqis, who contend that innocent people are being locked up on faulty information and have no judicial recourse.

Human rights groups have been pressing the military to introduce a more transparent system for dealing with detainees.

During a news briefing Friday -- several hours before announcing the investigation -- Sanchez defended the coalition’s practice of detaining Iraqis.

“I feel fairly confident that those that we’re holding either have [intelligence] value” or were involved in attacks on troops, he said.

Sanchez also said a program announced last week to release 500 detainees has been slow to start because officials have had difficulty finding prominent Iraqis to guarantee that the freed prisoners would not attack coalition troops. Detainees are regularly released.

During the briefing, Sanchez said coalition troops were making headway in efforts to crush insurgents.

Echoing previous statements by American officials, Sanchez said military engagements have dropped since U.S. forces captured deposed President Saddam Hussein last month. Attacks on occupation forces did not lessen immediately after Hussein’s capture, although they have in recent weeks.

“The timing is perfect for anti-coalition forces and the former regime elements to make a decision that it’s time to embrace the future,” Sanchez said. “The former regime is never coming back.”

Sanchez said insurgents who have killed hundreds of American soldiers and Iraqis since May appeared to be mainly Hussein loyalists, augmented by a smaller number of religious fundamentalists, some from abroad. He predicted that Hussein loyalists would eventually be killed or captured or would lay down their arms and that religious warriors would become the prime target.

On Friday, Iraqi police in the northern city of Mosul announced that two officers were critically wounded in a drive-by shooting near their station.

Also Friday, a bomb in a plastic bag left on a busy Baghdad street exploded, killing one Iraqi and wounding six others.

Witnesses said that passersby spotted the device and summoned American soldiers for help. When the troops arrived, the bomb detonated -- convincing some witnesses that it was a coalition attack.

“The Americans planted this, that’s why none [of their forces] were wounded,” said Ryad Mehdi Khazraji, who was standing on the sidewalk after the explosion.

Raheem Salman of The Times’ Baghdad Bureau and Times wire services contributed to this report.