Italy shock at Iraq abuse claims

Italy has around 3,000 troops in Iraq

Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martino has said he was surprised by claims that Italian forces in Iraq knew prisoners were being abused.

Soldiers are accused of sending prisoners to an Iraqi-run detention centre where inmates were mistreated.

The widow of an Italian major killed in Iraq has said he told her how prisoners "were treated like cockroaches".

Opposition parties have called for Italy to withdraw troops in protest at abuse by Iraqi, US and UK personnel.

Lashes

Mr Martino told parliament on Wednesday the government "was surprised and outraged" when it learnt about abuse of prisoners "which it firmly condemns".

But Giuseppina Longo, the widow of Italian officer Massimiliano Bruno, who was killed in Iraq in November, told the Italian media that her husband described how inmates at one prison were beaten and treated worse than cockroaches.

We sometimes saw detainees who were half dead with iron burns on their bodies and terrifying bruises from beatings Colonel Carmelo Burgio

Colonel Carmelo Burgio, chief of the Carabinieri regiment Tuscania, who has returned to Italy after his stint in Iraq, backed up her claims.

"We sometimes saw detainees who were half dead with iron burns on their bodies and terrifying bruises from beatings," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Asked if Italian forces complained to the Iraqi guards he said: "Of course, but they were amazed that we were scandalised.

"For the Iraqi police, it is normal practice to greet detainees with 30 lashes."

Revulsion

The publication of photographs apparently showing abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners by US and UK forces has caused a political storm on both sides of the Atlantic.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, meeting US President George Bush next week, expressed revulsion at maltreatment documented in a leaked report by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But Francesco Rutelli, leader of the centre-left Olive Tree coalition, called for troops to be pulled out of Iraq unless there was a change in the situation within seven days.

"The prime minister must go to Bush and make a formal request for the UN to take over the decision-making and the responsibility from the US military command," he said.