US officials defended the US military’s record probing civilian deaths and abuse in Iraq after graphic revelations in leaked secret documents triggered worldwide concern and condemnation.
The whistleblower Web site WikiLeaks released an unprecedented 400,000 classified US documents, which recount widespread torture in Iraqi prisons and purport to show 15,000 more civilian deaths than previously disclosed.
General George Casey, the top officer in the US Army who earlier headed forces in Iraq for three of the bloodiest years in the war, on Monday denied that the US “turned a blind eye” to prisoner abuse.
Casey also denied undercounting civilian deaths, saying US forces regularly inquired at morgues about death tolls.
“It doesn’t ring true with me. We actively went out and tried to understand the impact of both our actions and the militant groups’ actions on civilians,” he told reporters.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also rejected WikiLeaks’ accusations, noting the US trained Iraqi security forces in human rights.
“That’s one of the reasons why we’ve continued to have military forces in Iraq, to help with ongoing training of Iraqi security forces. And we believe that we’ve seen their performance improve over time,” Crowley said.
WikiLeaks, run by Australian-born computer hacker Julian Assange, said the documents showed a total of 109,032 deaths in Iraq between 2004 and last year — 66,081 of them civilians.
Britain, the main US ally in the Iraq war, said there was “no place” for mistreatment of detainees.
“We do as a matter of course investigate any allegation that is made against our troops,” said a spokesman for British Prime -Minister David Cameron.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises six US-friendly Arab monarchies, urged Washington to “open a serious and transparent investigation” into possible “crimes against humanity.”
Rights groups also called for a probe, with New York-based Human Rights Watch saying the US may have broken international law if it knowingly transferred prisoners to potential places of abuse.
The documents have had the most impact inside Iraq, where Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has come under renewed pressure as he seeks a second term following hard-fought elections.
The US image worldwide took a severe blow in 2004 when photographs emerged showing US troops humiliating inmates at Abu Ghraib prison. US military courts found 11 soldiers guilty, handing them sentences of up to 10 years in prison.
US President Barack Obama opposed the Iraq invasion and has declared an end to the US combat mission, but his administration fought the release of the documents, saying they could pose risks to US forces and their assets in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A military task force sifting through the records determined that WikiLeaks removed the names of the more than 300 individuals who would have been at risk, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.
However, the documents still contain information such as titles or positions “that could lead to the identification of those individuals,” Lapan added.
Assange dismissed fears that the release put US troops and Iraqis at risk in an interview with CNN’s Larry King late on Monday.
“In statements about this issue, the Pentagon is about as credible as North Korea. There are no names in the documents that we have released,” he said.
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