CNN.com – U.S. calls medics to Iraq police detention center – Nov 14, 2005

Scores of detainees found in poor health, officials say

Monday, November 14, 2005; Posted: 2:24 p.m. EST (19:24 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. Army discovered scores of detainees in poor health at a building run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry during a search for a missing 15-year-old boy, a U.S. general said Monday.

Brig. Gen. Karl Horst of the 3rd Infantry Division said the prisoners were found Sunday “in need of medical care — so I brought medics in.”

Iraqi police went further, telling CNN that many detainees in the Baghdad building “had obviously endured torture” and were “detained in poor health conditions.”

The Iraqi Interior Ministry could not be reached for response.

Horst would not say whether the military found signs of torture among the approximately 175 detainees, who were taken into U.S. custody.

“I brought in a legal team to sort through their files,” Horst said by phone from the building, one day after the mission took place.

On Sunday afternoon, U.S. soldiers entered the building, looking for a teenager who had been missing since September 15, Horst said. The boy was not there.

Iraqi police said the U.S. military “raided” the building, arriving in about 20 vehicles. The building was run by police commandos who work for the Interior Ministry, police said.

Horst denied there was a raid. He said U.S. and Iraqis were working on a joint investigation into the detainees and into the whereabouts of the boy.

Asked what the original purpose of the facility was, Horst replied, “I don’t know — that’s part of the ongoing investigation.”