Unreleased photographs and short digital videos taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq amplify the overt violence against Iraqi detainees by American soldiers and display a variety of abusive techniques previously unseen, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The Post said new pictures and videos it obtained go beyond the photos previously released to the public in several ways. Some of the videos echo scenes in those released still photographs, but the video images render the incidents more vividly, it said.

One video shows three US soldiers huddled around a naked detainee, his thin frame backed against a wall, the Post said. With a snap of his wrist, one of the soldiers slaps the man across his left cheek so hard that the prisoner's knees buckle. Another detainee, handcuffed and on his back, is dragged across the prison floor.

Then, the human pyramid begins to take shape. Soldiers force hooded and naked prisoners into crouches on the floor, one by one, side by side, a soldier pointing to where the next ones should go. The video stops.

The newspaper broadcast excerpts of this video clip on its web site.

It also published several new photos, including one showing a terrified Iraqi detainee recoiling from a black dog snarling at him, the animal's long, sharp teeth bared inches from his face.

Another photo showed a baton-wielding US soldier ordering a naked detainee covered in a brown substance to walk a straight line with his ankle handcuffed.

Previously released pictures of US soldiers physically and emotionally abusing detainees last fall in the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad have sparked an international uproar.

The Post said other videos it obtained show a group of apparently cavalier soldiers assaulting prisoners, forcing detainees to masturbate, and standing over a naked prisoner while holding a shotgun.

One of the videos shows a prisoner handcuffed to the outside of a cell door. He repeatedly slams his head into the green metal, leaving streaks of blood before he ultimately collapses at the feet of a cameraman.

The situation inside the prison became so chaotic that US soldiers turned their cameras on themselves, filming scenes of consensual sex, the newspaper said.

Defense Department spokesman Lawrence T. DiRita said the photographs, by description, sounded like those the Pentagon has exhibited to members of Congress, the paper said.

Source: Xinhua