Washington: In a further setback to the US military record in Iraq, a new set of shocking photographs have come to light that show American soldiers using German Shepherd guard dogs to threaten and apparently attack a naked Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison, where other publicised cases were photographed and videotaped.

The 'New Yorker' magazine, which published the photos, said the pictures had been held by a member of the 320th Military Police Brigade, the same unit implicated in other abuses at the prison, West of Baghdad.

One photo shows the prisoner cowering while the dogs barked. The pictures showed the same man on the ground while displaying a bleeding wound to his leg.

If the sequence were accurately described, said the 'Washington Post', it would be the first to surface from the prison that displays an act of deliberate wounding, stretching beyond the humiliation and acts of physical abuse of naked Iraqi prisoners depicted in photos already published.

Although no pictures depicting murder have become public, the paper said, military investigators are looking into at least two apparent slayings of prison guards since December 2002 and 10 more Iraqi deaths, as well as 10 assaults at detention facilities under the control of Central Command.

Pentagon and coalition forces in Iraq had no immediate comment, but spokesmen had said that the guards were obliged to follow international conventions and Army regulations that require prisoners protected against bodily injury. The codes also bar the use of torture and prohibit photographing detainees for anything other than intelligence.