U.S. Looks Into Afghan Allegations

The U.S. military has opened an investigation into allegations that an Afghan police officer was stripped naked, beaten and photographed at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, the American Embassy in Kabul said today.

The abuse allegation cited the American base in the eastern town of Gardez last August, an embassy statement said. U.S. officials learned of the allegations from the media, the statement said.

“The U.S. military has launched an immediate investigation,” the statement said.

The New York Times quoted the police officer as saying he was subjected to sexual abuse and taunting and sleep deprivation.

“To the best of our knowledge this is the first time anyone in the military chain of command or the United States Embassy has heard of this alleged mistreatment,” U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in the statement. “We are not aware of the existence of any photos of the alleged incident.”

Khalilzad said he was confident that the military’s investigation would be thorough and lead to “appropriate action” if the allegations were true.

On Tuesday, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan rejected an Afghan human rights group’s demands for access to the prisoners at U.S.-run jails in the country to make sure they were not suffering the same kind of abuses that have been reported in Iraq, saying monitoring by the International Committee of the Red Cross was sufficient.

Lt. Gen. David Barno said allegations of prisoner abuse, including three deaths, at U.S. jails in Afghanistan had prompted “very significant changes” in how the military treats detainees, including quicker transfers from jails at outlying bases.