Three US military policemen who served at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison said last night they had witnessed unreported cases of prisoner abuse and that the practice against Iraqis was common.
"It is a common thing to abuse prisoners," said Sgt. Mike Sindar (25), of the Army National Guard's 870th Military Police Company based in San Francisco. "I saw beatings all the time.
"A lot of people had so much pent-up anger, so much aggression," he said. Sgt Sindar and the other military policemen, who have returned to California from Iraq, spoke in interviews with Reuters.
US treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib has stirred wide international condemnation after the publication of photos in recent days showing Americans humiliating prisoners. Six soldiers in Iraq have been charged in the case and President George W. Bush has apologised publicly.
Although public attention has focused on the dehumanizing photos, some members of the 870th MP unit say the faces in those images were not the only ones engaged in cruel behavior.
"It was not just these six people," said Sgt Sindar, the group's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons specialist. "Yes, the beatings happen, yes, all the time."
An officer in their group was reprimanded last year after holding down a prisoner for other men to beat, said. St Sindar, and fellow military policeman Ramon Leal said they saw hooded prisoners with racial taunts written on the hoods such as "camel jockey' or slogans such as "I tried to kill an American but now I'm in jail".
Mr Leal said one female soldier in his unit fired off a slingshot into a crowd of prisoners. Sindar, who was familiar with the incident, said one person was injured.
Another group of soldiers knocked a 14-year-old boy to the ground as he arrived at the prison and then twisted his arm, the men said. "The soldiers were laughing at him," said Mr Leal. "I saw the other soldiers that would take out their frustrations on the prisoners."
Until earlier this year prisoners would arrive at Abu Ghraib with broken bones, suggesting they had been roughed up, he said. But the practice ended in January or February, as practices at the prison were coming under increased internal scrutiny.