U.S. begins new review of detainee treatment in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- In the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top commander in Afghanistan, has initiated a top-to-bottom review of how prisoners have been treated there, a military spokesman told reporters Wednesday.
The review will look at prisoner conditions and abuse allegations at Afghanistan prisons controlled by the U.S.-led military coalition, the spokesman said.
On Saturday, coalition officials announced they had launched a second investigation into detainee abuse in Afghanistan at the hands of U.S. jailers after new allegations surfaced last week.
An Army report, authored by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, initially looked into abuse allegations in Afghanistan, as well as Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
After photographs surfaced apparently showing U.S. soldiers abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners, an Afghan police colonel told a newspaper he was abused in August 2003 while in coalition custody in Gardez and Bagram. Coalition leaders were notified of the colonel's allegations on May 12 after the newspaper's report and immediately launched an investigation, U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager said.
Barno, speaking at a policy forum this weekend in Washington, said the newspaper's report was the "first indication" he had of any problems among detainees.
He said the new policy guidance is intended to "make sure those rules are enforced across all our operations in Afghanistan." He did not describe any shortcomings the new guidance will address.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote and Paul Courson contributed to this report.
