This photo taken on March 5, 2023 shows the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)
Between 70 percent and 90 percent of Iraqis detained after the U.S. invasion were actually arrested by mistake.
NEW YORK, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grim legacies of the Iraq War, reported National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday.
"Photographs leaked in April 2004, and broadcast from newsrooms around the world, show men stripped naked and leashed like dogs or forced into contorted or sexual positions, with U.S. forces posing gleefully with them," said the report.
Talib al-Majli, 57, two decades after his release, can recall in detail the torture he says he endured by U.S. soldiers during the 16 months he was held in the notorious prison. "He was never charged with anything -- one of the thousands of men swept up in U.S. forces' house raids following the invasion in 2003, most of them detained by mistake," according to the report.
Military intelligence officers from U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq later told the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that between 70 percent and 90 percent of Iraqis detained after the U.S. invasion were actually arrested by mistake, NPR reported, citing a leaked confidential ICRC report.
In the United States, 11 soldiers were eventually convicted in 2006 of crimes at Abu Ghraib. Almost 20 years on, none of the men who appeared in those prison photos that shocked the world has ever been compensated by the U.S. military for the mistreatment they suffered in Abu Ghraib, according to the report. ■