US Calls for Sacking of Iraq's Interior Minister Over Sunni Prisoner Abuse

The US is pressing for the sacking of Bayan Jabr, Iraq's Shia interior minister, whose staff have been discovered to be torturing Sunni prisoners. With a strong Sunni role in Iraq's next government apparently secure after their high turnout in Thursday's election, US officials want to ensure that cabinet posts are no longer exploited for sectarian or partisan ends. Sunnis have long complained that the interior ministry is one of the worst offenders.

Inspections of two detention centres on the eve of this week's poll found around 800 inmates, many of them teenagers, living in cramped conditions under interior ministry guard. Dozens had to be sent to hospital for injuries administered by guards.

The scandal appeared to confirm Sunni claims that the Baghdad police have become little more than an arm of the Supreme Council for the Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). Mr Jabr, a Sciri official, has been accused of hiring staff mainly from the Sciri militia called the Badr brigade. A desire to stop abuses by what Sunnis see as a biased government was a factor in persuading many Sunnis to take part in this week's poll.

Since the first torture centre was revealed the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, has taken steps to prevent further abuse. US officers are being "embedded" with interior ministry forces, commandos and police when they raid houses. Along with officials from Iraq's human rights ministry, they are also making surprise inspections of prisons and detention centres.

Mr Jabr sought to make light of the abuse, saying only seven people had been tortured out of more than 170 found in the first inspection in a secret underground bunker run by his staff in the suburb of Jadriyah. But Mr Khalilzad told a press conference this week that more than 100 were abused. He described the ill treatment as "far worse than slapping around".

On polling day he made it clear in an article in the Washington Post that he wanted Mr Jabr dismissed or moved to a different job. "It will be important that the head of security ministries be trusted by all communities and not come from elements of the population that have militias. Equally important is that key ministers be selected not just for political considerations but also for competence," he wrote. "The next government must put more emphasis on human rights."

The second detention centre uncovered was bigger than Jadriyah. Housed in old stables once used by Saddam Hussein's younger son, Uday, it contained more than 600 men and boys. Between 20 and 25 showed signs of abuse, the ambassador said this week.

The centre was run by the Wolf Brigade, a police commando unit, which - Sunnis say - has set up death squads that target Sunni clerics and politicians. Mr Jabr denies this.

A DVD made available to the Guardian by Saleh al Mutlaq, a leading Sunni politician, appears to show interviews with the prisoners recorded during the surprise inspection of the stables. Hundreds are standing or sitting in a large hall, packed so closely that there is not enough sleeping room for everyone.

One by one detainees come forward, showing welts across their backs, fingers with nails pulled out, cigarette burns on their shoulders, and severe head wounds, in one case with a bloodstained section of brain exposed.

"Many victims were teenagers, some as young as 15," Aida Ussayran, the deputy human rights minister, said yesterday. "Some were released. The others have been moved to a special facility for young people."

Preliminary results from this week's election are not expected until Thursday, with the final allocation of the new parliament's 275 seats unlikely until January. The electoral commission has received 178 complaints, of which 35 were about "violent interference" from police, army or election workers. Most of the rest, 101, related to campaign violations such as using religious symbols in advertisements.

It took three months to form the last government, a coalition of two election lists each containing several parties. Analysts expect the next government to be an even broader coalition in which all four major lists will share - the religious Shias, the Kurdistan Alliance, a Sunni list containing religious and secular parties and the secular non-sectarian list headed by Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister.

Meanwhile, it appears that Iraqi security forces questioned terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last year in the Falluja area but released him because they did not realise who he was, the deputy interior minister said yesterday.