US starts releasing Iraqi prisoners

US forces Friday morning started releasing hundreds of Iraqi prisoners from the notorious Abu Ghraib jail outside Baghdad, the center of a prison abuse scandal, witnesses said.

Several buses filled with detainees pulled out of the compound before setting off for the capital escorted by US military vehicles, said the witnesses.

The convoy drove to an American military base in west Baghdad, where tribal leaders awaited the prisoners, who kneeled and prayed beside the bus.

Earlier, US officials revealed that some 315 prisoners would be released on Friday, part of a months-old program.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld paid a surprising visit to the Abu Ghraib prison camp and insisted the Pentagon did not try to cover up abuses there.

Images of abuse have appeared in photos of Iraqi prisoners that were taken by American military guards at the prison.

About 3,800 detainees were in Abu Ghraib earlier this week. The number of inmates will cut to between 1,500 and 2,000 by the end of next month, the new commander of the jail said.

Several interrogation methods abandoned in Iraq

The decision was made Thursday by Ricardo Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq, on the same day of Rumsfeld's surprise visit to Iraq, US defense officials told reporters on condition of anonymity.

These techniques, which included "dietary manipulation," sensory deprivation, placing a prisoner in stressful body positions for longer than 45 minutes, and threatening a detainee with guard dogs, will be banned completely, said the officials.

Interrogation techniques used by US military personnel in Iraq have come under scrutiny following the revelation of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American troops at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Probe to continue

Bush met the ministers in the White House Friday. The ministers were in Washington to prepare for the G8 summit scheduled to be held in Sea Island, Georgia, on June 8-10.

Speaking to reporters after the White House meeting, Fischer said Bush "expressed the clear position that these events should be investigated thoroughly and that those responsible will be brought to justice."

Fischer said that other member nations of the G8 are also watching very carefully the ongoing investigations on Capitol Hill, in apparent reference to a series of hearings held by US Congress on the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

Meanwhile, the US authorities announced Friday that a court martial had been ordered against a fourth member of the group, Specialist Charles Graner, who will face seven charges including assaulting detainees, dereliction of duty and adultery.

Graner, facing more charges than any of his co-accused so far, will be arraigned on May 20, the same day as two sergeants who each face five charges.

In all, seven military police reservists have been charged in the affair that has outraged Iraqi opinion against the US occupation. Three of them, all women, are still awaiting a decision on whether their cases will go to trial.

The first US soldier to face a court martial over the Iraq prison scandal, specialist Jeremy Sivits, is expected to plead guilty, according to media reports Friday of the investigation which gave new details of the brutality faced by inmates.

Diplomatic pressure mounts

The statement, issued after a cabinet meeting, said the government "severely condemned" the abuse episodes and wanted to see the perpetrators "justly punished."

"The cabinet indignantly rejects accusations of co-responsibility or reticence with regard to these shameful and despicable acts," it said.

The center-right government, a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush, has repeatedly rejected Italian opposition parties' accusations that it must have known about the prisoner abuses.

Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino told the lower house of parliament on Wednesday that the government knew nothing of the abuse.

"If it had, it would have taken appropriate steps against its allies," Martino said.

He also denied that the International Committee of the Red Cross had given the Italian government a report on the abuses.

In Britain, the furor over the Iraqi prisoners abuse does not seem to go away as the Guardian newspaper reported Friday that senior figures across the British ruling Labor Party were intensifying pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair to publicly detach himself from the Bush administration. They urged him to spell out an independent British position on the Middle East, peacekeeping in Iraq and the US presidential election.

Blair rejected such calls and insisted he would not change course over Iraq, the British Independent newspaper reported on Friday.

"The most important thing is that we work with our coalition partners and sort it out, get the security situation right, so the Iraqis themselves are capable of doing the security, which is what they want to do," Blair told the paper in an interview, the first since the crisis over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US and British troops caused speculation that he might stand down.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell's 24-hour trip to Jordan this weekend will also be tainted by fierce criticism from Arabs over Iraq, the moribund Mideast peace process and the Abu Ghraib prison abuses, diplomats and analysts said.

Powell's trip to the region, which will include talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie Saturday and a World Economic Forum meeting at the Dead Sea, aims in part to blunt powerful Arab anger at the United States.

"They're outraged and there's a serious backlash," Powell said of the response to the Abu Ghraib pictures. "I'll have a chance totalk with many, many Arab leaders and try to put this in some context ... and to convey to them what we are doing to help the Iraqi people."

Source: Xinhua