'Abu Ghraib jail must be kept as crime scene'

A judge is refusing to allow Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail to be demolished, ordering its preservation as a crime scene for the inquiry into prisoner abuse.

President George Bush had offered to tear down the prison in Baghdad, also used by Saddam Hussein, to eliminate the legacy of torture. But at a hearing in the case of a US prison guard accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners, judge Colonel James Pohl said it must be preserved indefinitely.

He also ruled the US's leading generals in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez and John Abizaid, must testify at the trial of Sgt Javal Davis from Maryland, who faces charges of assault and maltreatment of detainees. A request for testimony from higher-ranking witnesses including US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was refused.

The ruling came as a picture emerged of American soldiers killed in an attack by insurgents. The image, from a videotape delivered to an American news agency, shows four soldiers lying dead in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

The men died as they patrolled a building site, residents said. It was unclear exactly when.

Meanwhile military police are investigating claims that British soldiers mutilated the corpses of seven Iraqi fighters after a battle in southern Iraq last month.