US Defense Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld, alarmed by a spate of reported sexual assaults involving US troops in Iraq and Kuwait, has ordered a probe into whether the Pentagon has done enough to prevent such attacks and help victims, officials said today.
"Sexual assault will not be tolerated in the Department of Defense," Mr Rumsfeld said in a memo released by the Pentagon.
In the memo, Mr Rumsfeld said he was concerned "about recent reports regarding allegations of sexual assaults on service members deployed to Iraq and Kuwait." The incidents involve US military personnel attacking one another, according to a defense official.
The Pentagon said that in the US Central Command region -- which includes Iraq and Kuwait as well as the Horn of Africa, the entire Gulf region and Central Asia including Afghanistan -- the American military had received reports in the past year of 88 incidents of "sexual misconduct."