BAGHDAD — A uniformed guard unfastened two padlocks and tugged open a large wooden door, releasing a rush of hot, fetid, sweaty air.
Inside, in a room the size of a high school gymnasium, 505 detainees stood or sat shoulder to shoulder on cardboard boxes and stained mattress pads. Their few clothes, copies of the Koran and other belongings hung from the walls or rafters. Metal ceiling fans barely disturbed the thick air.
The stench of human confinement intensified as the guard led the way to the back of the room and down a dark, flooded hallway to the bathroom, where half-naked detainees stood barefoot amid muddy puddles, broken floor tiles and stopped-up urinals. A shower and sink were filled with human waste.
The guard dropped his cigarette butt in a puddle as detainees relieved themselves in two holes and rinsed off under a broken water pipe.
Things had improved since the morning, the detainees said. The water was flowing.
This facility, the National Police detention center in northwest Baghdad, was intended to house up to 300 inmates when it opened two years ago. Nearly 900 are now crammed inside -- an unwieldy mix of suspected insurgents, alleged criminals and apparent innocents.
Other Iraqi detention facilities have seen a similar influx since the launch of the U.S.-led security crackdown in February.
Partially treated wounds, skin diseases and grossly unsanitary conditions appear common here. So, too, is extortion by guards, say U.S. officials who serve as advisors to the Iraqi staff, but disclaim responsibility for the conditions inside.
"They're Iraqi government facilities. We work with the Iraqi government to get their facilities established. It's their responsibility to maintain the facilities, it's their responsibility to provide the guards," said a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad.
Col. Daniel Britt, who heads the U.S. military's National Police Transition Team, which advises the detention center staff, said the conditions were "appalling" but met international standards. U.S. soldiers visit almost daily, Britt said.
Iraqi authorities also say that the conditions comply with their laws and invited a reporter and photographer Thursday to tour the facility.
National Police Col. Thamir Mohammed Ismail Husseini, one of the commanders at the detention center, urged detainees to speak up about any problems they had experienced. "You can say what you want, even complaints," he said.
