NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. and Iraqi authorities need to be held accountable for the accounts of torture highlighted in the recent documents from WikiLeaks, Human Rights Watch said.
The Web site WikiLeaks last week released thousands of field reports written by low-ranking U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq from 2004-09.
The documents allege that Iraqi forces beat, burned or otherwise mistreated detainees transferred to their custody by U.S. forces.
Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said "torture" perpetrated by Iraqi security forces is going unpunished.
"It's clear that U.S. authorities knew of systematic abuse by Iraqi troops but they handed thousands of detainees over anyway," he added.
The rights group notes that U.S. and international forces in Iraq said they felt they had no justification to intervene because they weren't directly involved in the alleged abuses.
Stork said the remaining U.S. servicemen in Iraq should make sure the detainees handed over to Iraqi authorities are being treated according to the rule of law.
"The U.S. should also make sure those detainees already transferred are not in a dungeon somewhere currently facing torture," he said in his statement.
The latest WikiLeaks revelation comes nearly six months after Human Rights Watch said it uncovered torture at a secret prison outside of Baghdad.
UPI
