The Hindu : International : Probe to include deaths

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 23, 2004

International

International

Probe to include deaths

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 22. Even while being hammered on the atrocities committed on Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison, the Pentagon is expanding the abuse probe to include 37 deaths, including nine that have been listed as homicides in Iraq and Afghanistan.

What is being said in a guarded fashion is that the deaths were linked to actions of another person but not necessarily mean that these were criminal in nature. But military officials will have to formally determine the reasons. It is said that the criminal investigation division of the army has already looked into 10 of the most serious cases since August 2002; but the army is now probing 37 detenu deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and that many more could be outside of the army's purview, an unnamed senior military official has been quoted as saying.

The Bush administration is under fire from Capitol Hill where lawmakers have expressed outrage at what took place in Iraq and the initial reluctance of the Defence Department to even acknowledge there was a widespread problem. And members of Congress have been holding series of meetings with Pentagon officials.

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