Australian public broadcaster SBS yesterday showed what it said were previously unpublished photographs of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison by US soldiers.
The pictures showed one man covered in what appeared to be excrement, another with a gash in his throat and an alleged interrogation room covered in blood. Video footage showed a row of naked men apparently masturbating.
Their release comes amid fury in the Muslim world, where anti-Western sentiment is raging over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and follows earlier pictures of abuse by US forces at the Baghdad prison leaked in 2004.
"These are the photographs the US government doesn't want you to see," the SBS announcer said, warning that some of the images shown on the Dateline program could be disturbing.
Some of the US guards who have already been sentenced for their part in the abuse, including Private Lynndie England, are seen in the new photographs. SBS said others that were not broadcast showed her having sex.
Some pictures showed scenes similar to those already seared into the public mind, including different angles of a hooded man with wires attached to his fingers, naked men stacked on top of one another, a naked man hanging upside down from a bunk, and terrified prisoners being menaced by dogs.
The man covered in what appears to be his own excrement was apparently mentally disturbed and was described as a "plaything" of the US guards, who "experimented with ways to restrain him" rather than try to help him.
"When the original Abu Ghraib photographs were leaked to the press, members of Congress were given a private viewing of photographs, including the images which appear in this Dateline program.
"They were shocked by what these extra images revealed of the full horror of the abuses taking place at Abu Ghraib," SBS said.
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