Kabul, Afghanistan – The U.S. military said Monday that it was investigating the deaths of two Afghan civilians in U.S. custody in 2003, following a newspaper’s report that Army Green Berets tortured some prisoners.
The Los Angeles Times said in a two-part series published Sunday and Monday that prisoner abuse by Special Forces units was more common in Afghanistan than previously reported.
The two deaths have been under Army criminal investigation but no charges have been filed, said Ken McGraw, spokesman for U.S. Special Forces Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.
U.S. military officials in Afghanistan referred calls to McGraw.
Chris Grey, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigations Division, said only that allegations against an unspecified number of soldiers were being investigated.
The Times said the case involves a 10-man National Guard Green Beret unit from Alabama that is alleged to have been involved in questionable killings of two Afghan men.
It identified the victims as Wakil Mohammed, allegedly shot in the mouth at close range during questioning about an ambush, and Jamal Naseer, who died after a brutal interrogation at a Green Beret base south of Kabul.
