The American general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib prison has said that she has evidence Israelis were involved in interrogating Iraqi detainees at another facility.
Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, who was suspended in May over allegations of prisoner abuse, said she met a man claiming to be Israeli during a visit to a Baghdad intelligence centre with a senior coalition general.
"I saw an individual there that I hadn't had the opportunity to meet before, and I asked him what did he do there, was he an interpreter - he was clearly from the Middle East," Brig Gen Karpinski told BBC radio in an interview broadcast today.
"He said, 'Well I do some of the interrogation here. I speak Arabic but I'm not an Arab, I'm from Israel.'
"I was really kind of surprised by that ... He didn't elaborate any more than to say he was working with them and there were people from lots of different places that were involved in the operation," Brig Gen Karpinski added.
Israel's Foreign Ministry told the BBC that reports of Israeli troops or interrogators in Iraq were "completely untrue."
Israeli officials could not immediately be reached. The presence of Israeli forces in Iraq would inflame opinion in the Muslim world, where many compare the abuse of prisoners by US forces to Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees.
Until a 1999 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court, Israeli secret service interrogators were allowed to use "moderate physical pressure" - a euphemism, critics said, for torture.
Among the practices allowed prior to 1999 were sleep deprivation, keeping prisoners in uncomfortable positions for long periods and covering their heads with filthy sacks. Former prisoners say those techniques also were used by US forces in Iraq.