U.S. rejects claims Afghan detainees were beaten

By Charles Aldinger

Wednesday February 13, 5:20 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon rejected on Tuesday allegations that U.S. troops had beaten Afghan detainees taken into custody and later released in a botched special forces raid in southern Afghanistan last month.

"At this point in the investigation, I don't believe that any of the detainees -- this is the 27 that were detained -- were subject to beatings or rough treatment after they were taken into custody," Air Force General Richard Myers said.

Myers, chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing that the January 24 attack on two compounds north of Kandahar where al Qaeda guerrillas were initially believed to be was still being investigated.

He did not specifically address whether any of the 27 were treated too harshly during the early morning raid by elite U.S. troops in which at least 15 Afghans were killed. The Pentagon has said the dead and injured could have been mistaken for al Qaeda or Taliban fighters.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that several of the 27 detainees, all of whom were released last Wednesday, said U.S. soldiers beat and kicked them so harshly that some suffered broken ribs and teeth and two men lost consciousness.

But Myers told a news briefing that preliminary indications from U.S. investigators had not found this to be the case.

"All 27 detainees were medically screened upon arrival in Kandahar and there were no issues of beatings or kickings or anything of that sort," the general said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters the military continued to investigate reports that a Hellfire missile fired from an unmanned CIA "Predator" aerial drone last week had killed three peasants instead of leaders of fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda guerrilla network.

WAR PROGRESS 'QUITE GOOD' - RUMSFELD

Rumsfeld and Myers said they regretted any mistakes made by the United States in Afghanistan, but insisted that the war on terrorism there continued to go well after the U.S.-led overthrow of that country's hard-line Muslim Taliban leadership.

"We continue to gather in additional people, senior people in the Taliban and al Qaeda -- it's a fairly steady flow," said Rumsfeld.

"We have gathered some intelligence from them that has been beneficial to the United States and other countries and to our deployed forces. And not just a little, but more than a little," he added. "So I feel quite good about the progress."

Asked whether bad publicity over mistaken raids was weighing down the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan, Myers said U.S. officials were reluctant to speak openly about more successful efforts because of secrecy constraints.

"You know, I think the secretary and I are anxious to share some of these successes with you," he told reporters.

"The problem is ... once we tell how successful we've been, then we will reveal those tactics, techniques and procedures. And sometimes they're easy to thwart," the general said.

"This is an ongoing operation, if you will, and we've just got to be very, very careful."

Regarding reports about the CIA missile, fired in the Zawar Khili area of mountainous eastern Afghanistan on February 4, Rumsfeld said that evidence -- including body parts -- collected from the scene by U.S. forces was being examined.

"Now, someone has said that these people were not what the people managing the Predator believed them to be," he told reporters. "We'll just have to find out. There's not much more anyone could ask."