Thursday, March 17 2005 09:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: At least 108 people have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of them violently, according to Government data provided to agencies. Roughly a quarter of those deaths have been investigated as possible abuse by US personnel.

The figure, far higher than an previously disclosed, includes cases investigated by the Army, Navy, CIA and Justice Department. Some 65,000 prisoners have been taken during the US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, although most have been freed.

The Pentagon has never provided comprehensive information on how many prisoners taken during the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have died, and the 108 figure is based on information supplied by Army, Navy and other Government officials. It includes deaths attributed to natural causes.

To human rights groups, the deaths form a clear pattern.

"Despite the military's own reports of deaths and abuses of detainees in US custody, it is astonishing that our Government can still pretend that what is happening is the work of a few rogue soldiers," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D Romero. "No one at the highest levels of our Government has yet been held accountable for the torture and abuse, and that is unacceptable."

To the Pentagon, each death is a distinct case, meriting an investigation but not attributable to any single faulty military policy. Pentagon officials point to a number of military investigations, which found that no policy condoned abuse.