Post by Moses on Dec 28, 2004 11:45:00 GMT -5
U.S., Britain Holding 10,000 Prisoners in Iraq[/b][/size]
Agence France Presse
Tuesday 28 December 2004
Over 350 foreigners are among about 10,000 detainees being held in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin Over says.
"U.S. forces told us on December 23 that they are holding 353 foreign terrorists," Mr Amin said.
He says they include: 61 Egyptians, 59 Saudis, 56 Syrians, 40 Jordanians, 35 Sudanese, 22 Iranians, 10 Tunisians, 10 Yemenis, eight Palestinians and five Lebanese, among others.
U.S. military detainee operations spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnston refused to comment on the figures.
"I will not confirm numbers of specific nationalities held among foreign fighters," Lt Col Johnston said.
"As a matter of policy, we only share those numbers with government officials."
Both the Iraqi and U.S. governments blame foreigners mainly from Syria and Iran for much of the violence in the country.
Mr Amin says 4,691 prisoners were being held in Camp Bucca near the southern port city of Umm Qasr, 3,411 in Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad and 818 in Al-Shuaiba British controlled Basra.
He also says that 104 are being held in Camp Cropper, near Baghdad's airport, where Saddam and other so-called "high-value" detainees are located.
Lt Col Johnson says the numbers were "generally correct" except for Abu Ghraib where the number is "closer to 2,500 at the moment".
Following revelations about prisoner abuse earlier this year in Abu Ghraib, the U.S. military instituted several changes in the way detainees are held and interrogated.
The ranks of prisoners may have shot up again after hundreds were detained during major operations against insurgents south of the capital, in Samarra and Mosul, north of Baghdad and the massive assault on the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.