BAGHDAD — In a case roiling Iraq's fragile political system, the nation's Shiite Muslim interior minister sought Thursday to justify the actions of security forces accused of starving and beating 169 mostly Sunni prisoners, while acknowledging that at least seven of the detainees had been tortured.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, who has had ties to a Shiite militia, argued that prisoners found in a bunker-like Baghdad facility that U.S. troops entered Sunday night had been legally arrested based on proper evidence and documents. Jabr added that in many cases, the prisoners were terrorists who had killed scores of innocent Iraqi children.
"OK, there were signs of torture," Jabr said. "And for that we will punish those responsible. But there were no killings and no beheadings, as some have said."
The U.S. Embassy, however, reacted sharply, issuing a statement that warned, "Even one case is too much, anywhere, at anyplace and anytime, in Iraq."
The U.S. also said it would not tolerate sectarian militias controlling Iraqi jails or running other security functions.
"We have made clear to the Iraqi government that there must not be militia or sectarian control or direction of Iraqi security forces, facilities or ministries," said embassy spokesman Jim Bullock. "The U.S. will assist the Iraqi government in every way to conduct a fair investigation."
With national parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 15, the furor has cast a spotlight on two key questions concerning Iraq's political future: whether the nation's major ethnic and religious groups can live together under the rule of law and whether Iraq will revert to a system in which the group in power feels entitled to exploit the others with impunity.
During the Saddam Hussein era, Iraq's Sunni Arab minority dominated the military and political hierarchies, and Shiites and Kurds were often persecuted. Now, the once-victimized groups control the nascent government, and the Sunnis are seen as the primary force behind the bloody insurgency.
Jabr, the interior minister, has links to the Shiite-run Badr Brigade militia, which Sunni politicians have accused of sectarian violence. His defense of his employees was a sharp departure from the Iraqi government's initial response to the prison discovery when confronted by senior U.S. officials. Both Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari and Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Ali Kamal acknowledged that the prisoners were tortured and promised a speedy cleanup.
