Stripped naked, hooded ... then beaten with guns

The widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners led to deaths and serious injuries in custody, a leaked report by the International Committee of the Red Cross reveals today.

The ICRC report tells of "excessive and disproportionate use of force" to extract information.

The Red Cross found allegations of "physical and psychological coercion during interrogation" and prolonged solitary confinement - all breaches of the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners of war.

The ICRC study, completed in February but kept secret, was compiled after interviews with internees conducted between the end of the Iraq war and November last year.

Investigators conducted 29 visits in 14 prison camps, including the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. They also went to Umm Qasr and a field hospital in Shaibah, both of which are under British control.

One of the main sites where the mistreatment allegedly took place is the former office of Saddam Hussein's-secret police in Basra. The methods of abuse most frequently reported include beatings with pistols and rifles, prisoners placed in hoods for up to four days, being stripped naked and exposed to loud music over several hours. "These methods of physical and psychological-coercion were used by the military intelligence in a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information or other forms of cooperation," the report said. It is alleged that this treatment occurred on a regular basis in cases where a suspect was deemed to have "intelligence-value". The report adds: "Some coalition force military intelligence officers told the ICRC that the widespread treatment of persons during arrest, initial internment and 'tactical questioning' was due to a lack of military police on the ground to supervise and control the

behaviour and activities of the battle group units and the lack of experience of intelligence officers in charge of 'tactical questioning'. "

The Red Cross also found widespread allegations of abuse by Iraqi police officers who have been trained by British and American forces.

In a move that will dismay Downing Street, the report shows that the police force has changed little from Saddam's reign, with people who are unwilling to pay bribes taken into custody and subjected to beatings and torture.

During interrogation, inmates were whipped with cables, kicked in the testicles, handcuffed and left hanging from cell windows and burned with cigarettes, it is claimed.

Iraqi police under coalition control were said to have conducted mock executions with unloaded pistols and administered electric shocks to some prisoners.

The Red Cross report states that military intelligence officers revealed that "in their estimate, between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake".

A pattern emerges of all parts of the armed forces blaming each other for the abuses.

Military intelligence chiefs blame initial ill-treatment on combat troops inexperienced in prisoner treatment, while military police blame the intelligence experts for systematically ordering forms of torture.