The US military will not hand over jails or individual detainees to Iraqi authorities until they demonstrate higher standards of care, a US official said, amid continued violence in the country that left at least 16 dead yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson said detention facilities in Iraq will be transferred over time to Iraqi officials but they must first show that the rights of detainees are safeguarded and that international law on the treatment of prisoners is being followed.
"A specific timeline for doing this is difficult to project at this stage with so many variables," Johnson, a military spokesman, said on Sunday. "The Iraqis are committed to doing this right and will not rush to failure. The transition will be based on meeting standards, not on a timeline."
He was commenting on a New York Times story on Sunday that was the first to report prison facilities wouldn't be handed over until Iraqi officials improved standards.
Prisons have been one of the sore points between the Shiite Muslim majority and Sunni Arabs, a long-dominant minority that saw its power evaporate with Saddam Hussein's overthrow. US officials are pushing to heal the rift as a way to weaken support for the Sunni-led insurgency.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said earlier this month that at least 120 abused prisoners had been found inside two jails controlled by the Shiite-run Iraqi Interior Ministry.
Sunni Arabs long have complained about abuse and torture by Interior Ministry security forces. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr contends torture allegations have been exaggerated by people who sympathize with insurgents.
Johnson said that in preparation for the eventual handover of prisons, the US Department of Justice is training Iraqi prison guards. About 300 have completed the course, he said.
Meanwhile, at least 16 people died in the latest violence in Iraq yesterday.
Three Iraqis died in a car blast in central Baghdad, witnesses said.
A car driven by a suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi police patrol, killing two policemen and one civilian, they said.
An ambulance rushed to the scene of the explosion as police cordoned off the area.
A shootout between Iraqi police and gunmen in Bahraz, 60km north-east of Baghdad, left 11 dead and three injured, witnesses said.
When gunmen attacked a checkpoint patrolled by Iraqi police and exchanged fire with them, five policemen and six gunmen were killed.
Three other policemen were injured.
Iraqi police vehicles and ambulances rushed to the scene to transfer the injured to the hospital.
In al-Mahmodiya, 30km south of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a cargo truck yesterday, killing two Iraqi civilians, a police source said.
The source said that the cargo truck carrying various products, including alcohol, was set on fire by the gunmen after they killed the driver and his assistant.
A civil defense vehicle rushed to the scene to put out the fire and transfer the victims to a nearby hospital.
also see story:
Iraqis experience year of contrasts
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although